What if we were to scale the idea up to a little big bigger form factor of either a tablet or a laptop?
There are numerous problems with the Phoneblok concept.
First, form factor.
The issues stem from the function of the devices. What do laptops, tablets, and cellphones have in common? They are all made to portable, and as a result they have a small form factor. To have a functional, portable, and small form factor device all of the components have to be intricately wound together. By hard wiring components together you are able to make the device's housing smaller. Which is obviously something that consumers want, more compact devices. If you wanted to say, incorporate the ability to upgrade and change major components of a device you would increase the size, massively. Then you'd have a desktop. Which would defeat the purpose of say a phone, which is something that can be conveniently carried on your person, generally in your pocket.
One of my problems with this idea is that it is oversimplifying some massively complex. Programming such a device would be a absolute nightmare. It disregards how technology moves, and how fast it moves. Almost every component of a smartphone is improved on each new release. Camera, processor, speakers, antennas, battery, GPU, CPU, memory, screen, and other new technology. It's more conventional to replace the entire phone every year or two instead of buying a new motherboard and processor to incorporate the newest parts (that you'll be buying anyways) for your massive-bulky software programming nightmare Lego phone. The speed at which phones become more advanced and improved is much faster than a computer. The two simply aren't comparable.
The concept is interesting, but horribly flawed from a engineering prospective. It is a horribly inefficient concept. It is also uneconomical. I have a feeling Motorola's Ara is going to die a horrible painful death. Or it won't really be that "customizable."
