Before I go any further, take a look at this pitch for Phonebloks — it’s just shy of 3 minutes long and will be worth it:
What do you think?
As somebody who likes to keep the tools of my trade working for as long as possible, I’m pretty excited by the concept; a seemingly sensible proposal and a slight antidote to the Upgrade Generation.
A “slight” antidote because it’s by no means the whole answer but a step in the right direction, don’t you think?
At the very least, the throwaway mentality might be slowed…
“Phoneblok is made of detachable bloks. The bloks are connected to the base which locks everything together into a solid phone. If a blok breaks you can easily replace it; if it’s getting old just upgrade.”
And it is only a concept at this stage — Dave Hakkens simply seems to be ‘putting it out there’ in an effort to spark enough interest from enough of the right people to maybe, just maybe, get this thing off the ground.
I must admit to being quite surprised by his note on copyright, though:
“If you want to set up this platform please do, the sooner the better. We would appreciate it if you would keep us updated though, we might have some ideas for it!”
It seems strange, after all his efforts, that Mr. Hakkens doesn’t have any rights over the idea and is willing to just ‘let it go’. Or maybe I’m missing something?
Of course, people will likely get hooked on the modular bits-and-bobs but I like the main ethos — that this is a phone worth keeping and that you only replace the modules that need replacing if they become faulty or outdated.
Oh, and it’s like Lego for grown-ups, which is good (!).
How can you show your support?
I’ve joined the Thunderclap for 29th October.
If you think this is a great idea, join the Thunderclap too, which will help really spread the word — I hope it can work in some way shape or form.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts…
