Imran Ali is blogging about Modu and their modular design concept for mobile devices. I’m skeptical. I wrote with great enthusiasm a few years back when the similar Personal Mobile Gateway (PMG) idea was doing the rounds. Almost all companies who tried that idea backed out. Remember IXI Mobile? They went on to specialise in messaging devices, although they have still maintained a detachable phone concept with the OgoClip.
The failure of PMG was that it didn’t solve any problem that mobile users had, although it was a really neat idea, like tech ideas often are. It sounds great to have a module that I plug into a new jacket to become a new device, but are users really going to want it?
The question for Modu is, just with the PMG concept, who’s going to buy into it and why? This is the question that I can’t find answered on Modu’s website. Modularity is most often a product feature, not a business or product in its own right. The core product has to be compelling in the first instance, which will inevitably lead to a plethora of ideas for a compelling flagship product, which ends up being the final product outright, just as IXI went from modularity to best-in-class clamshell product. I seem to remember that the clamshell was a favourite design of theirs, a picture of which featured in the first edition of my book ‘Next Generation Wireless Applications‘ back (in 2004) when I thought PMG was a cool idea. I still like the idea of a Bluetooth-connected watch that works in concert with my mobile.
Technorati Tags: Personal Mobile Gateway, messaging devices, Modu, clamshell
3 responses so far ↓
1 Oren T // Feb 20, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Hi Paul
Oren here, Allow me to quote your post “Modularity is most often a product feature, not a business or product in its own right. The core product has to be compelling in the first instance”
This is exactly what modu has done. modu is a highly compelling, solid, quality device in itself. Being the lightest mobile device is no easy feat and yet modu has already achieved this record while being fully functional as a stand alone mobile device.
As for your second question: Who’s going to buy into it and why? There was a very similar question asked when the Disk On Key was introduced, there were various options at the time but yet portability and ease of use brought DOK to the masses. modu’s on the right track to deliver the same mass appeal.
2 Paul G // Feb 21, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Hi Oren
Thanks for spelling out the benefits and thinking behind your product. I am a great fan of the PMG and modular idea, which is why I enthused about it a few years back and wrote about it in my book. However, I am still doubtful about its commercial viability in the consumer space. Modules have been very successful of course in the M2M embedded field.
I am not sure about the analogy with the disk on key product. I think the benefits of this were clear from the start and it solved a problem set. Yes, there were alternatives, but this solution solved the problem better. The point is that there was a problem that consumers wanted to solve, so disk-on-key appeared on their radar screen in the search for solutions.
What is the problem being solved with the modular phone concept in the consumer space? I think this is the key question. The modular product might well be a great experience in the hands of the consumer, but unless they’re looking for it - i.e. modularity - they won’t find it or buy it. I hope that I am wrong and that your expertise in the disk-on-key market brings us something new and great in the mobile space. There is certainly lots of room for innovation, but it is difficult to bring new hardware concepts to the market. This has been the historical case. I have seen or worked with many companies with new hardware concepts and it is always tough.
3 Stefan Constantinescu // Feb 26, 2008 at 2:58 am
I simply don’t buy it because it makes the assumption that only one of the may devices we carry should have connectivity. Complete disregard to the personal area network is death in my eyes.
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