Pylimitics

Years ago, mobile phones were designed with easily-swappable batteries, memory cards, and SIM cards. You could even disassemble them (to a point) and repair or replace components. Not that you generally had to; many phones from that era were far more durable than the iPhones and Android devices nowadays. Yes, I know you can still buy rugged phones and flip phones, but at the expense of features that are now standard.

The iPhone may not have started the design trend emphasizing devices as fashion accessories, but it was certainly a major driver. And it’s not just phones. Open the hood of lots of new autos, and you see a nicely designed set of plastic covers. They’re pretty. They’re fashionable. But if you need to do much to maintain or repair your car, those covers just get in the way. They’re functionless.

Computers, particularly laptops (which are the choice for most people) have a more diverse range of designs, but Apple computers are clearly, again, the major drivers in the “computer as fashion accessory.” While other hardware traditions like ThinkPads offered easily swappable components and all the ports and connectors you might need, MacBooks became stylish but impenetrable, and lost nearly all of their ports. The most popular MacBook, the Air, has two USB-C ports, a power port (not USB-C), and a headphone jack. That’s it. Need to replace a keycap? Or the screen? Or the battery, which is known to have a shorter lifespan than the rest of the components? Too bad. Buy a very specialized set of tools and learn some new skills – and even then, you probably can’t get the correct OEM components without working for Apple or possibly paying them for some sort of repair-center license. Or something.

The tide may be turning, though. There’s a new low-cost pickup truck called the Slate that emphasizes do-it-yourself modifications. Framework laptops are modular, and you can even order the modules and assemble the system yourself. Obviously you can also reconfigure and repair the laptop as well. Now the Fairphone 6+, designed and built in The Netherlands, offers modularity and DIY repairability (up to a point) in a modern smartphone.

When an object is “fashionable,” it’s an accessory. It looks good. You might acquire it to deliver an implicit message to people around you. But some objects, such as the things I mentioned, exist to be used. Because they are complex machines, usage eventually means maintenance and repair, and might also mean customizing. There will always be “luxury goods,” probably in every possible category. You can spend millions on a mobile phone if you want to. But you’ll be trading that implicit messaging for actual usability and functionality.

There have always been people who value functionality and customizability more than fashion. They are not the same people for every kind of product, but there are such people for every kind of product. It looks to me like those people are starting to have better choices, after some years where Jony Ives-style fashion-first design was all the rage.