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Comment by nwh | Hacker News Reader

It looks pretty on paper, but it can't ever compete with a properly designed and executed product in the real world. The reason Apple can get their devices so small is the complete omission of connectors and other internal padding. This thing (whatever it is) will just be a mess of connectors and other supporting hardware- a monolith of extendability that will never be used by an end user. Any extendability it has will be stunted by the bus abatable to it; you won't get an external screen or upgraded processor on a flimsy usb-alike connector.

I would wager that almost every "reconfigurable" device or product just ends up in a single setting, which would have been better off being found during product testing and the rest of the configurations ignored.

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> This thing (whatever it is) will just be a mess of connectors and other supporting hardware- a monolith of extendability that will never be used by an end user.

Yes, it probably would be a mess compared to an iPhone - just like the PC vs Mac.

I wouldn't be so fast to dismiss this, you might be surprised how many users would prefer the ability to customize their devices over one-size-fits-all solutions.

Just ask yourself why there are so many people buying all those high end Android devices.

They aren't all buying android to run a nightly build of x. People are buying them because the screen is so big, it looks nice , my mum bought the same one , the salesman said this was the best phone. Tech sites overestimate how many people want to mess with the innards of anything.

That's the thought process for purchasing a phone. Think about purchasing a general purpose computer. Think about replacing your game console.

Motorola may have been a phone company, but this thing isn't a phone by any stretch of the imagination. A true convergence technology could stand to support a little modularity.

"Just ask yourself why there are so many people buying all those high end Android devices."

Over here (Uruguay), it's the network effect, and Android being cheaper (both perceived and in app availability).

Apple makes no efforts to cater to some particulars of Third World countries (like, no credit card even having enough income, and a strong dislike to tying it to anything). I wonder how they manage to be apparently strong in China. Android dominates in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East

App availability is much better for Android here.

Microsoft made many of Apple's screw-ups as well.

So, if you plan to buy a high end phone in Uruguay, 97% will end up buying an Android (and most of those will end up with a Samsung Galaxy, which is what the official carrier pushes).

Apple does have a lot of signalling value though :) and and iPhone is perceived as a luxury product too, but it's way more impractical here.

Hi -

Really appreciate your comment. My startup, Nulu, is servicing Latin America with an English learning product with daily news content. Something you mentioned is that Apple makes no effort to cater to those who have no credit cards. Can you tell me a little more about how you and others would prefer to purchase devices and apps? How about products and services over the web?

I'm really quite interested as we're facing the same challenges you're speaking about.

Hi, I don't think there's a Latin-America wide answer to that unfortunately.

Here in Uruguay, the most popular method for payments is through a nationwide payments network, the two biggest being Abitab and RedPagos:

"Abitab and Red Pagos, channel some 49% transactions of the retail payment system, with credit cards (39%) and cheques (9%)"

https://twitter.com/marslombas/status/302521188939358209

The local Groupon clone, wOOw (www.woow.com.uy , which vastly outperforms Groupon here) uses mainly Abitab, as well as credit cards, with the important distinction of accepting locally issued credit cards which do not exist outside of Uruguay or Argentina.

In Argentina there exist similar payment networks (RapiPago and PagoFacil I think)

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapipago

I'm not sure what the situation is in Brazil or Chile (I think they have ServiPag) or the rest of the Latin American countries.

There must be services to integrate with those payment methods easily, here in Uruguay we have CobrosYa

https://www.cobrosya.com/sitio/

It seems very primitive and it introduces a huge friction, especially for impulse purchases like apps.

Apple buyers here in Uruguay are usually wealthy and do have credit cards. The problem is Android users (the vast majority), which don't have a culture of paying for apps (and most have the attitude of just looking for the free equivalent).

I investigated starting a micropayments platform based on the cell phone, but I gave up due to the extreme complexity involved, but there's certainly a lot of opportunities to disrupt - and some are doing it like former coworkers who started Paganza:

http://www.paganza.com

Thank you so much - super useful information. It matches a lot of what we've discovered over the past several years looking into the market. If you don't mind my asking, what are the most effective ways of communicating "how to pay" to consumers in Uruguay? Any sites that you've seen that do a particularly good job?

You said it yourself: android is perceived as cheaper. The new middle class in China are practicing conspicuous consumption, and one of the ways they do that is by preferring luxury imports like louis Vuitton and apple.

Agreed. To me at least, the iPhones are beautiful, fast, reliable...and really, frickin boring. I would much rather have an fat, ugly phone if that meant I could customize it.

True, but at some point in the not too distant future, electronics will have shrunk so much, that this shouldn't matter any more. Phones can only become so small before they become unusable. So development is on their side.

Let me give you an alternate use case beyond the upgrade-ability. I see the advantages of this more-so in day to day use. I use my phone in several different environments and to that end right now I have multiple phones because of the limitations.

Typical days I want a full featured general use device... well rounded. I carry my Nexus 4.

My job requires me to spend several days a month "on-site" where I will be on my feet moving for 12-14 hours a day. I need battery life as I can't stop at a charger. I carry my Nexus One (yes, it still goes a 12 hour day under solid use)

Lastly, when I travel I'd like to have a phone with a better camera so I wouldn't have to carry one. The Nexus 4 is good but if there was a better option I'd take it.

I would like to see a device like this give me the option to reconfigure on the fly. When I'm on-site I'll pop in 2 battery modules... when I travel I'll put in the better (yet maybe bulkier) camera... day to day I'll use a more general set of components. Through it all I don't have to sync data or worry about what is on each device. Additionally this would easily allow swappable batteries (and if they permit more than one... hot swappable)

I don't think they have the design nailed yet... but I also don't think this is something that should be discounted at all. Those who research this early despite the nay-sayers are the ones who just might be holding the next great thing in the end.

Two questions: 1. why not just carry a battery case for your Nexus 4? 2. keep in mind that modular = bigger. Would you still like to carry the phone if it meant that in Nexus 4 configuration it would be 2 times bigger and weight two times as much as your regular Nexus 4?

> it can't ever compete with a properly designed and executed product in the real world

Apple isn't going to create a GPS tracking module for a truck. The goal of Ara is to provide small factor computer platform for new applications.

I just noticed http://www.dscout.com/ara

Maybe I'm paranoid, but it seems more a way for motorolla to leverage a community on the cheap.

I really doubt the ARA will exist in a way that makes it really usable. IMO it seems like the technology is moving faster in a direction where you can produce a cheap small batch of custom build hardware (or an infinite variety of models like Samsung) rather than going back in the old school lego model.

However, I can see the scout data from the community being incredibly useful for a company to create devices dedicated to various markets.

The Android trend is for larger devices, while the electronics keeps shrinking. The last generation PCB for my last 7" tablet would easily fit into my current 4.3" phone.

> you won't get an external screen or upgraded processor on a flimsy usb-alike connector.

Current screens are already connected by flimsy connectors. Have you tried changing screen on a phone in recent years?

It's not going to beat "dedicated smartphone"; think "hardware for low-volume product" or "add a nice touch UI to an existing product".

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