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Ask HN: Why is it so hard to design an open-source smartphone?

6 points hamburgererror | 3 comments | 16 Oct 25 07:55 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

Following the discussion around Librephone [1], it seems that every project regarding open source smartphones OS are centered around the software only.

Lineage and GrapheneOS have proven that reverse engineering is hard. So I'm wondering why can't we have a project that starts from scratch and build the electronics and the OS? In the same spirit of what Apple did with iPhone+iOS. I'm sorry if I sound naive, I just don't realize how hard it is to design a smartphone.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45586339

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incomingpain ◴[16 Oct 25 12:22 UTC] No.45604459[source]▶
The correct answer is anti-competition; but not by who you think.

You absolutely can produce an open source smartphone. Pine64 has done it. ubuntu and purism have done it. Nokia was doing it, woot n900. Many chinese brands do it. fairphone kinda?

They can build fully open hardware and we have loads of OS that work just fine.

But why then does no mobility provider at all offer them in their phone offerings. Even if they were on page 34. Tmobile usa, everyone in canada for sure, has AOSP and KaiOS for dumb flip phones. But no open options? If you bring an open phone to them, you'll be imei capped and isolated and separately tracked.

But the answer comes when you also realize ulefone or umidigi are also not offered. It's about who is in control. I highly recommend your next phone is imported from a different region than you are in.

replies(1): >>45605618 #
1. 0xEF ◴[16 Oct 25 14:14 UTC] No.45605618[source]▶
> It's about who is in control.

Nail on the head. So long as the consumer does not have any power, we can be herded like cattle to wherever the devices we now depend on want us to go.

As an aside, perhaps you can help me remember the name of project? I think about a decade ago, now, someone was working on a completely modular smartphone. The idea behind it was that you purchased the base "frame" with the screen and rudimentary functionality, but then purchased modules based on your needs, to add things like wifi capability, cameras, speakers, etc. Perhaps more importantly, these all snapped into the back of the frame, which made them easy for even the casual user to install/uninstall functionality at-will.

Do you (or anyone reading) remember the name of that project?

replies(1): >>45608115 #
2. finalarbiter ◴[16 Oct 25 17:24 UTC] No.45608115[source]▶
You are most likely thinking of the "Phonebloks" concept by Dave Hakkens (2013).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonebloks

https://www.onearmy.earth/project/phonebloks

replies(1): >>45608764 #
3. 0xEF ◴[16 Oct 25 18:11 UTC] No.45608764[source]▶
That's the one, thank you!