[Community] Phoneblock

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 13.01.2014 um 12:18 schrieb Parchet Michaël:

> 
> Watch your opinion about phone block ?

There was already a discussion here (maybe you remember):

http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/community/2013-September/000539.html

Generally I think it will become as widespread as the S100 bus is today.
Or dual-screen laptops.
Or cards where you can replace/upgrade/downgrade the motor/seats/dors easily or simply mount an 4-wheel drive.

BTW: Motorola (Project Ara) and ZTE (Project Eco Mobius) are working on this. And even the EOMA68 can be seen
as a step into this direction (I am still waiting for any news about the Spark/Vivaldi tablet).

The reason why I am so sceptical is cost effectiveness.

Having a modular concept means:
* components need to be individually covered (for protection) => higher cost than monolithic
* components need additional connectors => higher cost than monolithic
* the interface/bus must be future-proof => high cost for potential features that you do not yet need today
* to get the same size of a complete device you need smaller components inside the modules => higher cost than monolithic

So the achilles heel for the lifetime of such a modular concept is the long-sighted definition of the interfaces (electrical, mechanical).

-- hns