What is Modu?
It's very interesting that during last year's MWC one of our largest articles have been about Modu, and now this is the only product that we have found to be interesting enough to write a dedicated article about. Modu is here again at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, they again have a closed tent, where only members of the press and partners can enter, and they were very convincing again. There is an important difference compared to last year: the product they have announced this time will be a commercially available one.
Hall of the Modu HQ @ Mobil World Congress 2009, Barcelona
Modu is something that has two meanings. Modu is the name of the concept they have based the product on, and Modu is the name of the phone too, which is the heart of the whole system. Let's see the device first: Modu is undoubtedly one of the smallest phones in the world, it's smaller than a credit card and weighs only 40 grams. You can make calls with it, write SMS messages, store data on it – and insert it other devices that have no GSM module, which cannot be used on their own, but with the Modu inside they come alive. These are called jackets, and there are lots of them, all being very different.
One of the company's executives is showing us how good the new jackets are
What's all this good for? The basic idea is that we shouldn't take all the functions with us that we aren't going to use at a given time – so for example why should we be carrying a QWERTY keyboard business handset when going on a trip when we could clearly do with a smaller, more heavy-duty model. This can be done currently only by buying more mobiles (which isn't really cost-effective) and keep switching the SIM card, not mentioning that in this case we can't take our data with us, at most the 250 phone numbers that fit on a SIM card. Modu is a solution for this, as all of our data is on the Modu and the jackets are much cheaper than a separate handset, as due to the lack of a GSM module they have much less circuits. Another advantage is that if we'd like a anew feature – a high-res camera for example – we don't have to change our handset, it's okay if we just buy a new jacket.
What has changed since last year?
Last year Modu has been more of a concept, that was planned to be promoted at the event in Barcelona and the developers have also checked how high is the demand for such a thing. As it has turned out this year, the guy who made up the idea of Modu is also the father of the USB pendrive – and the gentleman seems to have successfully convinced the market about the popularity of Modu, as this year it wasn't present as a concept, but as a finished product that will be launched this year.
The main device has been a bit redesigned. The internal memory size has been 1 GB last year, which has been doubled by now. This might still not sound too much, but it's enough for keeping our personal information, photos and a couple of albums of music. The physical size has of course remained unchanged and the design has undergone some minor fine-tunings, the call hadling keys are now a bit deeper and due to the standardization process now there is a microUSB connector as well, which is absolutely a positive thing. It's important to note that Modu has a menu system by default, but if we put it in a jacket this is completely changed, no matter if the given jacket has its own display. If it does than this is even logical.
Modu is proud to have an unusually large resolution compared to its small screen size
Of course the jackets are new as well, which has been expected, as the ones from last year – even though some of them were functional – were much more like a toy phone than a real jacket. This year the company brought four jackets and a couple of accessories, which will surely be sold, although the company's representative told us that besides these they would like to mass-produces at least three other ones before the device's official launch. Modu is coming this year, the targeted launch date is the end of Q2, but the first places of availability are unfortunately not in Europe, but in the Southeast-Asian and South-American regions, which are to prove or confute the viability of Modu. We'll have to wait a year for the European and North-American launch, but of course this depends on the success they can achieve in the first regions.
What jackets should we expect?
As I have already mentioned there are four jackets that are rather finished. These have no technical specs released yet, but we know what they are capable of. Let's start with the one called Modu Classic Jacket, which is a slider device with a fashionable deign, a large display, a keypad and a camera – this is in fact the basic model if we'd like to use Modu as a normal phone.
Modu Classic Jacket
The second one is Modu Night Jacket, which is a kind of party-phone thing. Its most important quality is that it has no proprietary display; there is a plexiglass covering the Modu's own screen, so we can think of it as a protective case, as probably no one will feel a real pity for this if it falls apart. Otherwise it's rather fashionable, it has a series of LEDs on its back and there is a 3 megapixel camera with a flash, which lets us shoot all kinds of party photos. It's interesting that the menu system's design changes even though the jacket has no display.
Modu Night Jacket
The third one is Modu Street-art Jacket, which is targeted at youngsters and it has vivid colors. Its most attractive quality is the menu system, which is rather youthful. Otherwise the jacket is quite average with its 3.2 megapixel camera, a music player and a set of stereo speakers, which are not really high quality ones, although they are better than on a simple low-end phone.
Modu Night Jacket
Last, but not least, here's Modu Express Jacket, which is barely smaller than the Modu itself, it uses its display, but has a numeric keypad, so it's better for day-to-day telephone use than the bare handset. Basically it can be good for those who just leave for a short time somewhere, they need to have a phone with them, but would not like to put on the Classic Jacket. It should be available in more colors.
Modu Express Jacket
Besides these four there were a couple of concepts displayed as well, for example the Cycling Jacket was very interesting. We didn't get to know much about it, but it's possibly a navigator as well.
For cyclers
The car jacket looks really cool. We don't know who will be shipping the car navigation solution for Modu, last year Magellan was there, probably they are still partners. Otherwise we have liked the car holder the most on the whole concept.
For car navigation
The desktop digital photo frame is quite smart, it can charge the phone, put calls on handsfree and we can make calls from it. And of course we can possibly view pictures on it as well. It might be handy for businessmen.
It could look cool on the boss's desk
The most promising has definitely been the musical jacket from JBL. Its special features are the battery inside and the stereo speakers on its back, according to the company's representative they have very good sound quality, but unfortunately we couldn't test it, as it's currently just a concept/prototype. Of course we can make calls with it as well, its front is designed to help this.
Music cans will love it
Finally we have also seen a dummy of the Modu Sport Jacket. As you can see on the picture this can be fastened to our arm, there is a dedicated quartz screen displaying the time/our results/anything, and we can also make calls with it, although it has no numerical keypad, as that wouldn't make much sense.
Could be the favorite of sportsmen
Summary
Besides these we have seen a couple of accessories as well. For example there has been a pink case, which had a hole on its end, this is a kind of phone-spinner thingy, so it practically has no use at all. The plush case hanging on the CEO's neck looked much better, which can be used for carrying the basic handset – this will probably give us no neck-strain. It's important to note that Modu's battery is not really powerful, it provides two and a half hours of talk time or 100 hours of standby time, but these values are of course much higher in those jackets that have a proprietary battery.
The basic handset
To sum it up we can say that Modu is coming in mid-2009 to Southeast-Asia and South-America. We have been assured by the company that as soon as the launch will happen in these regions we'll get a sample, so in about half a year we can decide whether Modu is a viable concept. Unfortunately European customers have to wait another half a year to judge it, and it's not even sure that everyone will have the chance to do so. Currently the situation is that Modu will be available only from network carriers with a subscription and we don't know which networks are they negotiating with. It's a sure thing that it will be cheap, the base kit (Modu + two jacket) will have a price of $200 USD and the jackets will almost surely cost less. Our conclusion is the same as last year: we're eagerly waiting for it!
Bocha feat. Bog
Translated by Szaszati
