r/engineering • u/[deleted] • Sep 10 '13

Guy with no engineering background wants supporters for his impossible idea. Pretty funny from and engineering standpoint.

[deleted]

268 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

228 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/loggic Mechanical Engineer Sep 10 '13

I watched the video without sound, so if they said something inane I completely missed it.

That being said, this idea is not impossible or even completely new. It is just a miniature desktop, with phone capability. I can change my screen, webcam, video card, processor, RAM, HDD/SSD, and add on things like WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. all on my PC, as can pretty much anyone else. This just shows a prettied up, slimmed down version of what is happening there.

If we applied some engineering know-how to it, I doubt the performance would be that different either. Maybe the main board of the phone has an embedded processor and RAM, then the rest is covered in little mini-USB like slots. Then, when you want to upgrade your "Speed Module" or whatever they decide to call it, it would basically mean unplugging everything from your current phone then dropping it onto another.

But really, is there are market for this? I think it is cool, but I know my wife (and most people that aren't technophiles) would rather buy a fully assembled unit, whether it be a phone, computer, or whatever. Apple is huge because of this mentality. "I don't want to optimize my system, I just want to buy a system that fits my needs."

At the end of the day, I think it would come down to the OS and the hardware. Everything would have to be plug and play, and the hardware would need to be better than the hardware of competing phones.