BusinessWeek reports on modu, an Israeli company that has developed a modular mobile phone around the size of an iPod Nano. The Associated Press reports the phone will be launched on 1 October 2008 in Italy, Russia and Israel.
As Reuters pointed out yesterday, telecoms and mobile phone manufacturers will be out in force at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Frankfurt, Germany. Modu is only one of several hundred manufacturers who will use their booths to show off their latest hardware.
Modu has designed a basic GSM phone that could be used on its own, but the company wants third parties to license the technology and build “jackets”. These are devices like media players, mobile handsets and other gadgets that have a slot for the modu phone. The jackets provide a larger, more comfortable form-factor for everyday use, and provide opportunities to decorate, brand and extend the phone.
Founder Dov Moran has the experience and connections to pull this off, having sold his flash memory business, M-Systems, to SanDisk in 2006 for US$1.5 billion. He’s invested US$5 million in modu, according to Reuters, and believes his new company could generate US$1 billion in sales revenue by 2011. That would rival the largest mobile phone manufacturers like Nokia and Samsung, whose businesses rely on a traditional business model. Consumers buy a handset, use it for a while, and upgrade to a different model.
The modu concept would let manufacturers add mobile connectivity to a wide range of electronic devices. Digital cameras could have a modu slot, for example. Car stereo systems might include a modu slot, as shown in the concept video on the modu website. A modu-compatible media player would be an interesting rival for the iPhone.
Creating a consumer hardware standard is tricky. Video games are a good example. Cartridges and software from one system usually do not work with another manufacturer’s console.
