Modular smartphone

[2] This design aims to reduce electronic waste, increase the phone's lifespan, and lower repair costs.

[4] Planned obsolescence, originating from American industrial designer Brooks Stevens, is a strategy of selling phones to be replaced rather than repaired.

[8] In addition to the impact of disposal, the manufacturing of phones, which includes use of conflict minerals can result in soil degradation and heavy metal pollution.

[5] High amounts of energy, ore and processing power are required to obtain small quantities of the minerals used in the circuit board, display and battery of mobile phones.

[5] Consumers often prematurely replace their smartphones due to degradation of certain components that experience the most mechanical stress and are costly to repair (specifically the display, battery, or back cover).

[10] Modular phones are part of a trend in mass customization which propelled by consumers’ demand for new product iterations within shorter time frames.

[13] Specialized components such as ultra high-definition cameras, condenser microphones, or barometers are generally costly to produce, and are only useful in very specific applications.

[3] First conceptualized by Dutch industrial designer, Dave Hakkens, this smartphone would have been made of detachable blocks that are connected to a base.

[21] In addition to reducing electronic waste, Project Ara also proposed to include a specialized Wifi module that would ensure a strong signal no matter the ISP.

[20] Due to the device's complexity, its need for constant upgrading, and lack of support from mobile carriers, Google abandoned Project Ara.

[21] In addition, big mobile companies did not support Project Ara because they directly profit from customers replacing their non-modular smartphones every few years.

[30] Modular phones also rely on pre-manufactured components from different suppliers like InvenSense, Asahi Kasei, and Amotech that roughly fit different connecting pieces together.

[3] Separate modules not only take up more space, but they also require individualized and self-contained boxes in order to ensure each component can be safely handled, which also adds to the device's overall size.

[3] In contrast, non-modular phones, such as the iPhone produced by Apple Inc., the memory, the processor, and the graphics circuitry are all built into a single chip.

[3] While Project Ara used latches and electropermanent magnets to achieve a more durable phone, the device still has a higher potential for breaking apart than non-modular smartphones because they rely on detachable components.

[3] There are concerns that consumers may be overwhelmed by the number of choices and would prefer pre-packaged phones, or that the modular smartphone distribution process lacks the agility to keep up with short product life-cycles.

[3] While there are concerns, proponents hope that the technical challenges can be overcome and that a viable market ecosystem (the hardware version of an app store) will enable finer-grained competition that will benefit consumers with better and cheaper choices

A image of the front and back of a Fairphone 2, showing the screen, camera and speaker at the front, and antennas, battery, card slots, loudspeaker and rear camera at the back, among other components.
Front and back of a Fairphone 2 with a transparent case, showing the modular design. The individual components can be highlighted in the annotated image .
A diagram of the Phonebloks concept. [ 19 ] Different sized modules were imagined as being attached to a base that served as the motherboard for the modular smartphone. [ 19 ]