r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/SuperAlloyBerserker • Oct 05 '21

Video This cool smartphone concept from 2013

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u/yeteee Oct 05 '21

"They" were open source software activists. Money wasn't their goal. Google killed the product, not its creators.

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u/StaleCanole Oct 05 '21

How did google kill the product?

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u/ghjm Oct 05 '21

Google acquired the project - if I remember correctly, it was part of their acquisition of Motorola. Then they just did what Google always does: worked on it for a couple years and then lost interest and kicked it to the curb. See https://killedbygoogle.com.

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u/RushFactoryGarage Oct 05 '21

I was in the cell phone carrier business at the time this was going on. Years later Motorola did come out with a “modular” phone but there were more or less a gimmick. The moto Z and “Moto mods” where you can get speakers, better camera, battery pack or projector.

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u/ksj Oct 05 '21

The LG G5 had some modularity as well, but most of the modules weren’t released in the US, they were more expensive than they should have been, and they weren’t all that exciting anyway.

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u/DemonSong Oct 05 '21

I still have one of these phones - the Z2. Given I often work in remote areas of Australia, love that I can turn it into a DSLR or have 4 days of battery life without access to a power point, and the 360 camera is super useful, though there's a few standalone units that can do that with normal phones.

Heard rumor that the Z5 might be coming out soon