Phonebloks: A Phone Worth Keeping

Charles Stephen Craun

Phonebloks: A Phone Worth Keeping

Phonebloks design concept
Phonebloks provides users with the ability to build a custom smart phone from a series of bloks which are interchangable independent feature components. These bloks connect to a central core blok , and can be easily exchanged with other feature bloks. Phonebloks features a central blok which is the CPU of the phone Component Bloks, such as a camera blok or speaker blok, are connected to the central blok with small metal pins that transmit electric signals between them The entire phone is held together by two screws at the bottom of the unit All blok components are completely interchangable

Phonebloks: An Interactive Innovation

Perceived Usefulness:
Interactive design concept allows users to build phones according to specific desires, Interchangable bloks allow users to actively modify their phones to preform particular functions for particular situations.

Perceived Ease of Use:

the entire unit is held together by two screws, which makes building and modifying the phone an easy task for virtually anyone.

Phonebloks as a Catalyst for Social Change

The environmental Disaster of E-waste:

Discarded cell phones are a prime contributor to the huge amounts of toxic non-biodegradable waste accumulating in landfills and other waste sites which poses a growing threat to both the health of local communities and the environmental health of the earth as a whole.

Each Year: 140 million

discarded cell phones end up in open air landfills

Containing 80,000 lbs of lead, as well as untold amounts of Mercury, Chlorine, Bromine, and Cadimium

Phonebloks as a Catalyst for Social Change

Environmental Disaster of E-waste(cont.):

Immediate Environmental Impact:
These chemicals easily leak into the soil in/around landfills, becoming absorbed into the local ecosystem.

Health Complications: Birth defects and impaired cognitive function(among others)

Phonebloks: provides a foundation to initiate and facilitate social change by

providing an environmentally friendly solution to e-waste that has the potential to be beneficial for individual users, the mobile phone industry, and the ecological integrity of the environment.

Phonebloks: a Catalyst for Change

Phonebloks

would be able to make a massive environmental impact by drastically reducing the amount of discarded cell phones.Such a reduction would be possible due to users ability to modify their existing phones with interchangable bloks, eliminating the need to buy entirely new phones.

Phone manufacturers

would focus on enhancing software and blok features, rather than constantly proliferating newer models which render older phones obsolete.

Opinion Leading Organizations: Major mobile service providers(Verizon/ect) would

adopt variations of the phonebloks platform, and their massive customer bases would help the innovation achieve critical mass.

Phonebloks: Relative Advantages

Relative Advantages to Users:

Economic Profitability:
Core blok is one time purchase

users only have to buy additional feature bloks to upgrade or modify original core blok.
Users purchase features individually and on an as-needed basis.

Eliminates users having to spend hundreds of dollars on entire new phones to upgrade features or change functionality.

Decreased discomfort:

array of interchangeablefeature bloks allow users easily upgrade or modify the functionality of their phones to satisfy needs/desires. provides a single platform with a vast array of potential features

Phonebloks: Relative Advantages

Relative Advantages for Industry:
Economic Profitabliity:
producing/marketing phone bloks provides new market in preexisting mobile phone industry Existing manufacturers could produce brand name versions of phoneblok feature bloks with specific features(ex. LG manufacturing LG camera bloks) manufacturers could improve public image by reducing the amount of e-waste caused by discarded mobile devices.

Social Prestige:

Phonebloks: Compatibility
Digital Natives: culturally compatible with technologically affluent U.S society A majority of adult U.S population uses cell/smart phones on a daily basis The typical U.S household of 2.6 people has an average of 24 gadgets, including at least one

smart phone(Washingtonpost.com) Users readily adopt new forms of digital technology

Compatibility with Existing Mobile Phone industry Preexisting multibillion dollar mobile device industry could facilitate adoption compatible with services and features offered by smartphones: 3g/4g wireless

Compatible with Existing Mobile Device companies: major manufacturers could use R&D departments to develop their own versions of the phonebloks platform/feature bloks

Phonebloks: Complexity

Brilliance in Simplicity:
Identical to smart phones: users familiar with smart phones can
use that knowledge to easily nagivate the phone interface
minor technological/aesthetic differences are largely inconsequential

Simplistic Design concept:

2 screws at base of phone hold unit together, which makes process of assembly/disassembly an easy task for virtually anyone.

Facilitating the innovation process

Change Agency: company that developed Phonebloks Communication Campaign: Phonebloks designers launched Youtube
video to advocate for support of Phonebloks
Youtube video has generated over 18 million views in previous 2 months.

Opinion Leadership Organizations: major mobile phone

manufacturers and wireless service providers in U.S.
Largest service providers have millions of customers/clients Necessary for change agents to engage in dialogue with corporations to encourage adoption at organization level

Decentralized Diffusion Networks

Decentralized Diffusion Network:

Change agents representing phoneboks could ideally colaborate with opinion leadership organizations, which in this case are the major mobile phone manufacturers and wireless service providers in the U.S

Incentive for adoption: change agents could sell technology to mobile phone manufacturers and allow them to reproduce it
Horizontal Networks: various mobile device manufacturers, such as LG/Motorola/ect could develop their own versions of the phonebloks technology, such as separate service providers developing specific versions of phonebloks technology Localized Adaptations: These mobile phone manufacturers(motorola/LG) could then develop localized versions of the phoneblok technology that corresponds to established brands and include particular benefits, such as developing a LG brand camera block that has a higher resolution than its competetors.

Reaching Critical Mass:

If manufacturers and service providers adopt phonebloks, critical mass can be attained by marketing localized versions to their established customer base.

Discussion Question
Do you think that the concept of Phonebloks has the potential to be successfully introduced into a society such as the U.S, that is saturated with dozens of different cell phone brands but dominated by just a few corporate giants?(like Verizon)

Sources
"Cell Phones All Contain Toxics: Older Ones the Most." Environmental News Service [Ann Arbor] 11 Oct 2011, n. pag. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. <http://ens-newswire.com/2012/10/11/cell-phones-all-contain-toxicsolder-ones-the-most/> Kang, Cecilia. "Number of cellphones exceeds U.S. population: CTIA trade group." Washington Post 11 Oct 2011, n. pag. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/number-of-cellphones-exceeds-us-population-ctia-trade-group/2011/10/11/gIQARNcEcL_blog.html>