<html><head></head><body>With a little ingenuity you could probably make a EOMA50 phablet size smartphone <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On January 12, 2017 2:47:31 PM GMT+03:00, David Boddie <david@boddie.org.uk> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<pre class="k9mail">A bit off-topic, perhaps, but this article illustrates the difficulties that<br />large corporations have with long term visions, especially in cases where<br />sustainability has to compete with profitability:<br /><br /><a href="http://venturebeat.com/2017/01/10/inside-project-ara-googles-revolutionary">http://venturebeat.com/2017/01/10/inside-project-ara-googles-revolutionary</a>-<br />modular-phone/<br /><br />Found via OSNews: <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/29600/The_dream_of_Ara">http://www.osnews.com/story/29600/The_dream_of_Ara</a><br /><br />I think the drive to focus on profits and what "consumers" supposedly want in<br />corporate environments tends to undermine projects like these, even when the<br />work is being done in part of an organisation that is supposed to be shielded<br />from commercial concerns. Because conventional wisdom suggests that the<br />public won't buy modular phones, no modular phones are made, even if there<br />might be a demand for them if they were made. Indeed, just the availability<br />of modular phones might drive demand for them.<br /><br />This suggests a lack of imagination on the industry's part which I think is<br />shown by the example of a phone module given in the article: a tiny<br />"aquarium". Very interesting, but not really something that would sell the<br />practical benefits of modularity. Of course, you need examples of what the<br />system can do, but it's often the case that the most interesting ideas come<br />from third parties. Just getting the devices out there with open specs and<br />documentation would be enough to find the interesting use cases.<br /><br />Anyway, this is only sort of relevant here, but I hope it was thought<br />provoking. ;-)<br /><br />David<br /><br /><hr /><br />arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk<br /><a href="http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook">http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook</a><br />Send large attachments to arm-netbook@files.phcomp.co.uk</pre></blockquote></div><br>
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