At some point, smartphone ownership can start to feel like a runaround. You buy the phone with the new! best! features! and a year later, Apple (or whoever) reveals a newer phone with the newer! bester! features! and your phone becomes obsolete. Enter Phonebloks, a brilliant modular concept phone.


The concept, from designer Dave Hakkens, is of a totally modular phone with separate "parts" that can be swapped out, removed, or upgraded, depending on the needs of the user. When they make a faster chip or a better screen, you could simply buy a new chip or screen without replacing the entire phone. If you just want a lot of disk space or battery juice and don't care about your camera, you could sacrifice the one for the other. Smart!


And sure, it may be unrealistic. It doesn't seem to be designed with profitability in mind, which would make it a tough sell for cell phone manufacturers. And I have no idea if it would even be possible to engineer something like this. (Though if they can put a freakin' fingerprint scanner on an iPhone, surely someone could make something like this work?)

But whatever, this idea is too appealing to ignore completely. Why not explore it? See what happens? You don't have to give them money to support the idea; all they ask is that people go to Thunderclap and lend them some social media push. And what's the harm, really? Phonebloks may never amount to anything, but you never know.

(via Laughing Squid)