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I hate cell phones.
 Though I'm young enough where one could assume I'm part of the crowd where each meal has a photo shoot, my dog has her own Facebook page, and I have a dozen apps to order Chinese food, the reality is that I do not. My phone has three purposes: phone calls, text messages, and sports scores. The occasional web surfing occurs when I'm waiting for an oil change or a dentist appointment. In a way, it's awkward that it's called a phone, because the thing it's least proficient at: being a phone. And if I could get my fantasy football stats via smoke signal? Well then that smoke would turn an acrid black because my phone would be the next item in the flames.
If anything, a phone is another burden. People expect to be able to reach you 24/7. They're exceptionally vulnerable to droplets of water and the force of gravity will shatter the screen. It's a pain to leave a voicemail, and it's an equal hassle to retrieve a voicemail. It's another piece of mail requesting money, for a service that is never quite up-to-par. Hey, don't text and drive!
I've long realized I can never get rid of my cell phone. It's an impossibility in the 21st century; it's like asking George Jetson to give up his flying car, so to speak. But a reinvigorated approach to an old mobile phone concept may turn me into a mindless consumer just yet. This phone would be tailored to suit my interests and phone needs, and might even be cheaper than current mobile phone options.
Phonebloks is the brainchild of two Dutch designers, Dave Hakkens and Gawin Dapper. While attending university, Hakkens was dismayed at the number of cell phones his fellow students were going through. If the phones weren't damaged, they were otherwise obsolete and replaced in just a year or two. What makes high-end cell phones especially popular is their ability to download all sorts of software so a user can customize their communications experience. However, the overall hardware of the phone was always the same: screen, battery, antenna, various integrated circuits, CPU, camera, RAM, etc. And this was hardware that, though functional in many instances, was destined for the scrap heap.
 Phonebloks are a series of phone components which assemble very-much like Legos. Foremost, this allows an owner to update his or her phone's RAM when it becomes obsolete or full. If the screen breaks? Buy another, press-and-fit into the phone, and keep the rest of the pieces together. People will be able to trade blocks, sell them, and review them. Phones can come preassembled, but if your interests are photography and craft beers, then upgrade the camera and install the blok which has a 5.0 MP camera, as well as the blok with a fold-out mechanical bottle opener. It's a much more common-sense approach to individualizing cell phones; no more sequence iPhone covers are necessary. Phonebloks envisions a future with tables and personal computers with modular capabilities.
Most notable is that, despite attempts to purchase or invest in Phonebloks, the company is remaining independent. After a crowd-speaking platform (not crowdsourcing), Hakkens was able to secure the collaboration of Motorola. Motorola has agreed that Phonebloks will remain open-source, allowing savvy users to tailor Phonebloks to their needs without the development kit and permission of a corporation.
 Of course, some technical individuals and engineers are speculative that Phonebloks is as development-ready as Motorola believes. Phones today are compact with no space wasted, but Phonebloks may require large blok sizes. This is because circuits in a phone do not communicate on a single bus, but each one is compatible with specific processor pins. This also restricts where the hardware in a phone can be placed. Alternative interconnects, such as the currently- researched optical interconnects, are a few years away from market and will be wildly expensive. Oh, and by the time Phonebloks could be a reality, the cell phone as we know it may have changed. Have you seen Google Glass? If phone and tech designs continue to trend in this direction, Phonebloks might be dead in the water.
For now, I'm stuck with my unimaginative and wasteful phone. I've had it about 15 months, so it should be dying on me any minute now. My personal Phoneblok would be: perfect 4G so I can get crisp sports highlights; a Swiss army knife blok; enhanced speakers so I can crank my music; and the phone Phoneblok, so I can finally get reception in the basement.
Resources
Motorola Teams Up with Phoneblok for Project, Policy Me
Phonebloks
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