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> And I know of others, and I know I'm not alone. Children who play Fortnite on the go are a much bigger market and will always be. Smartphones are content con

by f6v 2y ago

> And I know of others, and I know I'm not alone. Children who play Fortnite on the go are a much bigger market and will always be. Smartphones are content consumption devices.

hilbert42 2y ago
"Smartphones are content consumption devices." The point I put forward is what I and a small select section of the market wants as features—NOT what's on offer from manufacturers now. The argument people are putting here is that manufacturers would not serve that market. These are two separate issues. Isn't that clear? When someone makes what I want then I'll buy it. BTW, I've not suggested anything that cannot be made now with existing technology. Instead, manufacturers are removing important features such as not including FM radio and 3.5mm headphone sockets. These are the first two specs I look for on a phone before I buy it. If they're not included I'm not interested. Full stop! In brief, the lowest common denominator is NOT what I want. The market has to be more diverse. That in part is what the article is about and why I commented.
- david-gpu 2y ago
  The tiny minority of people who want this do not form a market large enough to bear the amortized engineering and manufacturing cost of adding those niche features. Imagine somebody asking for phones that have a built-in Swiss army knife because there is a (tiny) segment of the market who would benefit from it. Before it makes sense to integrate these features to the phone, you would expect to see a thriving ecosystem of third-party external dongles providing the same, for example. The market is not more diverse because there is no money to be made by making it more diverse. You underestimate the cost just as much as you overestimate the size of the market segment that wants those features.
  - hilbert42 2y ago
    "The tiny minority of people who want this do not form a market large enough to bear the amortized engineering and manufacturing cost of adding those niche features" I beg to differ, Fairphone thinks it's economically viable to make phones that are upgradeable by changing modules. The company is doing it now! All I want is a spare slot inside one of these phones that I can insert a specialized module. There would be no problem in getting specialized manufacturers to make those modules, witness the fact that there are already thousands of small modular devices on the market already. If Fairphone were to provide a slot I'm damn sure there'd be call to use it. Think Raspberry Pi and all its ports, just transfer the concept to a phone that's almost suitable now.
    - Kirby64 2y ago
      > I beg to differ, Fairphone thinks it's economically viable to make phones that are upgradeable by changing modules. The company is doing it now! Fairphones devices are, frankly, bad value and not particularly interesting. Being able to “upgrade” components is not very useful, if those components are already years behind. Also, fairphone doesn’t allow this! You just can replace components with the same kind… which just makes repairing easier. > All I want is a spare slot inside one of these phones that I can insert a specialized module. There would be no problem in getting specialized manufacturers to make those modules, witness the fact that there are already thousands of small modular devices on the market already. You have one. It’s called the USB-C port. Make whatever you want with it, it’s widely supported and compatible.

by f6v 2y ago

> And I know of others, and I know I'm not alone. Children who play Fortnite on the go are a much bigger market and will always be. Smartphones are content consumption devices.

hilbert42 2y ago

"Smartphones are content consumption devices." The point I put forward is what I and a small select section of the market wants as features—NOT what's on offer from manufacturers now. The argument people are putting here is that manufacturers would not serve that market. These are two separate issues. Isn't that clear? When someone makes what I want then I'll buy it. BTW, I've not suggested anything that cannot be made now with existing technology. Instead, manufacturers are removing important features such as not including FM radio and 3.5mm headphone sockets. These are the first two specs I look for on a phone before I buy it. If they're not included I'm not interested. Full stop! In brief, the lowest common denominator is NOT what I want. The market has to be more diverse. That in part is what the article is about and why I commented.

david-gpu 2y ago
The tiny minority of people who want this do not form a market large enough to bear the amortized engineering and manufacturing cost of adding those niche features. Imagine somebody asking for phones that have a built-in Swiss army knife because there is a (tiny) segment of the market who would benefit from it. Before it makes sense to integrate these features to the phone, you would expect to see a thriving ecosystem of third-party external dongles providing the same, for example. The market is not more diverse because there is no money to be made by making it more diverse. You underestimate the cost just as much as you overestimate the size of the market segment that wants those features.
- hilbert42 2y ago
  "The tiny minority of people who want this do not form a market large enough to bear the amortized engineering and manufacturing cost of adding those niche features" I beg to differ, Fairphone thinks it's economically viable to make phones that are upgradeable by changing modules. The company is doing it now! All I want is a spare slot inside one of these phones that I can insert a specialized module. There would be no problem in getting specialized manufacturers to make those modules, witness the fact that there are already thousands of small modular devices on the market already. If Fairphone were to provide a slot I'm damn sure there'd be call to use it. Think Raspberry Pi and all its ports, just transfer the concept to a phone that's almost suitable now.
  - Kirby64 2y ago
    > I beg to differ, Fairphone thinks it's economically viable to make phones that are upgradeable by changing modules. The company is doing it now! Fairphones devices are, frankly, bad value and not particularly interesting. Being able to “upgrade” components is not very useful, if those components are already years behind. Also, fairphone doesn’t allow this! You just can replace components with the same kind… which just makes repairing easier. > All I want is a spare slot inside one of these phones that I can insert a specialized module. There would be no problem in getting specialized manufacturers to make those modules, witness the fact that there are already thousands of small modular devices on the market already. You have one. It’s called the USB-C port. Make whatever you want with it, it’s widely supported and compatible.