Modu Unveils Modular, Transformer-style Phone

An anonymous reader writes "A company called Modu has come up with an innovative take on a mobile phone. Instead of giving you the finished product, you get a base unit and a choice of 'sleeves', which you can plug the base unit into and turn it into a variety of devices. "If, for example, you're going out clubbing, you can pop it into a fashion sleeve with a fancy design. If you're on a business trip and you need a phone with a Qwerty keypad and large screen, you just have to pop it into a 'jacket' with those features." There's also the option to plug it into a satellite navigation device or even a car stereo. While it seems like an interesting system, I wonder whether modular devices are better than buying standalone products or all-in-one products?"

Re:Innovation

[TubeSteak]

About the only innovation here is to call it innovation.
Sleeves for personalizing gizzmos is about as old as forever.

Sleeves that provide different functionality?
Show me a phone that already does that.

Perhaps not a phone, but ipaq for one

[EmbeddedJanitor]

ipaqs has sleeves since inception. These added GPRS, GPS, CF and other functions.

Modular systems are nothing new.

Re:If it allows...

[Anonymous Coward]

From my previous life in a defence-industry related engineering job, I can tell you that none of us were allowed cameras or iPods. The USB ports were disabled and we weren't allowed to have thumb drives anyway (just in case). Oh yea, no wireless keyboards either. None of us were government employees. Few of us had any sort of clearance. Those that had Secret clearance had to go into a special room to view that sort of information. Nothing we did was Hollywood material, but most of it was export controlled and, of course, there was a huge concern to keep trade secrets...well, secret.

So, now you know.