Imagine, if you will, a world where consumers are no longer at the mercy of huge companies and their yearly redesigns of smartphones. Imagine being able to upgrade your phone, piece by piece, without having to get an entirely new device.
Phonebloks has imagined this, and they may have just begun the process of rendering all current phones completely obsolete.
Phonebloks’ plan is to allow the consumer to customize phones using “blocks”, each of which can be removed, replaced and upgraded whenever the consumer desires. This would potentially allow us to replace a cracked screen, increase the processing speed or even upgrade the camera without purchasing an entirely new device. Certainly sounds nice.
I’m just a humble journalist, so I’m not sure of the technical minutiae – but the basic premise is that you have access to blocks, each of which are dedicated to a specific purpose (camera, memory, processing etc.). When a block becomes outdated or if you want to customize your phone for a specific purpose you’re able to pop out the blocks and put in a new or better one.
**I kind of want to play with LEGOS right now.**
What Does This Mean For Gaming?
Given the option to upgrade the graphical prowess and processing of your device gives gamers what essentially could be the first fully upgradable portable console (and phone). No longer would we have to go out and get a brand new phone to play the latest Infinity Blade, we could just pop a new block in and go about our day.
The downside of this would be the fact that Phonebloks has zero install base, therefore making it a risk to any developer or publisher that wants to design games for it. Specifics on the OS and the options of running something like iOS or Android have not yet been discovered, but I’d imagine it could run them if the powers that be don’t threaten to sue the crap out of people.
If you feel like Phonebloks is something you want to get behind they’ve started a Thunderclap campaign to get the word out. Click here to check out their ideas.
Are you interested in Phonebloks? Sound off in the comments down below and maybe one day we can burn our iPhones together.
