Modular smartphone design revealed
Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - 12:06:02
The problem with the modern smartphone upgrade cycle has been much discussed, not only because it is costing consumers large amounts of money, but also because of the environmental impact it can have.
Even if you recycle your old mobile phone after a year or two of enjoying its service, there are still negative impacts of this process which could be avoided, if a more sustainable and sensitive approach was taken.
Enter a new project called Phonebloks, created by Dutch designer Dave Hakkens, to make smartphone ownership a more modular experience.
The idea is that rather than replacing an entire handset, you can swap out individual components to expand its usefulness over an extended period.
Everything from the camera to the battery and the onboard storage can be replaced with a simple, clickable module, so that as improvements and advancements are made, you do not need to ditch the whole thing.
Hakkens told the Daily Mail that the millions of mobiles which are thrown away by the world's population each year are causing a lot of problems, as well as generating untold amounts of waste. This is something that Phonebloks could address and it looks like the adult equivalent of Lego.
There would even be scope for replacing the screen on the handset and because each component could offer different capabilities, the phone could benefit from a scalable price, which means that everyone could invest.
This is simply a concept at the moment and has not be worked into a usable prototype, so you could argue that the idea might, ultimately, prove to be unworkable.
However, reducing the amount of waste which is generated by the mobile industry is definitely a good idea. You can do your bit by recycling your old mobile phone until Phonebloks becomes a reality.
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