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On 27/09/13 08:26, Simon Waters wrote:
I think this has been done with desktop computers to some extent. They are effectively a box in which you can put whatever modules you want, from whatever manufacturer you want, stitched together by the motherboard. And it has been hugely successful. You could still have a computer with ISA and AGP if you want. Apple have tried to stop this by closing down their design. Laptop packages are too individual for it to work but they could be made in the same way, but that would mean manufacturers cooperating instead of competing.http://phoneblocks.com/ Anyone else think this is a great idea ?I suggest we do the same thing with computers. We could have stuck with ISA it was good enough. Oh and stuck with AGP. No one needs to move buses on. Here in lies the problem, it would be massively difficult to build a phone like that, more difficult than producing a much better phone that people would prefer. And harder still to make it flexibly upgradable. Also purely by volume I suspect mobiles are far less of a problem in the waste stream than other devices. Even if you change your mobile every 2 years you'll only have 50 in 100 years, which is only around a kilo or two of waste, most of which would be high value, even repairable and resellable if only 2 years old.
The only thing I can see against it is "style". I think at least 50% of Apples success is to do with fashion, style, cool, marketing, call it what you will, and in our current culture this will always be so. But I believe our current culture is unsustainable and will have to change.
My vote is for phoneblocs. There is no reason why this appliance manufacturing method should not be applied across a lo of consumables, and indeed once was. It was called maintainability and is the opposite of built in obsolescence.
George George -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq