Has the Concept of a Modular Phone appealed to you? The first rumblings of a modular smartphone sure made waves with its first serious concept presented: Phonebloks.
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The Phonebloks idea seemed to resonate with many when Dave Hakkens presented the design initially, back in 2013. The idea shook off the ‘Vaporware’ title when later that same year, Google adopted the concept, and brought the Phonebloks design under its wing under the new name: Project Ara.
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Since that time we have seen a steady stream of updates, and even a working prototype demonstrated on more than one occasion. But as with any good idea, we quickly saw other companies moving to bring a device to market.
Today sees one of the newest competitors: PuzzlePhone, an idea with a much simpler approach to the concept; instead of focusing on many different parts, it will accommodate just 3:
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Battery//Display and mainboard//CPU and Camera.
While the Idea is not new, the implementation seems to show promise. While we will have to wait till 2015 (at the earliest) before they expect to have completed PuzzlePhones, one thing is encouraging: So far, there is no crowd-funding campaigns to get it off of the ground. Rather, the Finish company seems to be pressing forward on their own funding.
This may have you asking, how many have been released? I have counted at least 10 different concept designs. It appears that we are entering the ‘me too’ phase of the Modular Smartphone, let us hope that the best design wins.
