LEGO-Like Smartphones Slowly Snapping into Place

Tossing the old smartphone and buying a new one every couple of years has become a wasteful but inescapable ritual for many. Nearly two thirds of U.S. adults own a smartphone, according to Pew Research Center, and we dispose of about 130 million of them each year. One proposed solution would be modular smartphones that allow owners to replace broken parts, upgrade to better components—or even customize their devices based on their preference for, say, a better camera or more digital storage space.

The idea surfaced in 2013 when Dave Hakkens, a student at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, uploaded a YouTube video describing his “Phonebloks” concept. Google took notice and partnered with Hakkens to develop a modular smartphone—provisionally called Project Ara—using its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team that came with its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Since then major smartphone manufacturers as well as start-ups have been working to bring modular devices to the market.

But analysts say modular smartphones face a tough challenge in winning over mainstream consumers accustomed to slick, all-in-one Apple and Android devices. There is also the risk that environment-friendly goals will fall behind business considerations if consumers turn out to prefer handsets that are only minimally modular. The first attempts by major manufacturers such as LG Electronics and Motorola Mobility—now owned by China’s Lenovo, although the ATAP team is still at Google—have generally focused on minor accessory modules such as better cameras or upgraded speakers. The main smartphone hardware could still become obsolete within a few years.

Google’s Project Ara also seems to have moved away from the original, fully modular Phonebloks idea. During the May 2016 Google I/O conference, Google announced that the first version of its modular smartphone would have a base frame containing its central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), antennas, sensors, battery and display—a setup less ambitious and flexible than what Hakkens once envisioned. Still, the current “developer” version of Google’s modular smartphone advertises user choice in a design that resembles colorful blocks joined together. The developer phone has six slots that fit any given module and hold it in place with a magnetic grip. Rafa Camargo, engineering project lead for Project Ara, says the choice to make the core phone technologies unchangeable was a trade-off enabling a focus on modules “that innovate beyond the functionality you get on your smartphone today.”

“Nowadays most people do not upgrade their phone to get the next processor. They do not even know what that is,” Camargo says. “But they do it to get the next best camera or fingerprint sensor or better speaker—all in one device.”