For over a decade, the dream of truly modular smartphones has collided with the messy reality of consumer electronics. Google's Project Ara promised customisable phones for $50. Motorola's Moto Mods offered swappable components. Both quietly disappeared, victims of complexity, cost, and market indifference. Yet the dream hasn't died. It has evolved.
From Singapore: The shift is happening quietly across Asian markets, where manufacturers are moving beyond magnetic charging tricks towards something more ambitious. The magnetic phone accessories market hit an estimated $2 billion in 2025, establishing a foundation that earlier modular attempts never had. Rather than trying to rebuild phones from scratch, manufacturers are now focusing on what actually matters: adding capabilities when you need them.
Tecno is channeling Project Ara with its latest Modular Phone concept, calling it the Modular Magnetic Interconnection Technology. The device itself measures just 4.9mm thick, and even with a 4.5mm power bank module attached, the total footprint remains roughly the same as a standard flagship phone. The critical difference from past failures is the engineering. The system uses magnets for attachment paired with physical pogo-pin connectors for efficient, low-heat power delivery, while data transmission switches among Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and millimeter-wave communication.
The ecosystem currently includes about ten different modules, including an Action Camera for creators and a Telephoto Lens that uses the phone screen as a viewfinder. This matters because it addresses a genuine trade-off in modern phone design. Instead of building larger camera bumps or thicker batteries into every device, manufacturers can now offer tools on demand.
Xiaomi is pursuing a different but complementary path. At MWC 2025, Xiaomi showcased a Modular Optical System concept that takes the biggest limitation of smartphone cameras—their tiny sensors and restrictive optics—and fixes it with a snap-on lens. The innovation here is technical: Xiaomi's proprietary LaserLink technology uses near-infrared laser communication to transfer image data at speeds up to 10 Gbps, fast enough for real-time photo capture, video recording, and computational enhancements without noticeable lag. This is not a gimmick. It's genuine expansion of capability.
Why did modularity fail before? Google abandoned Project Ara due to the device's complexity, its need for constant upgrading, and lack of support from mobile carriers. LG's Friends modules, Motorola's Moto Mods, and Google's Project Ara all aimed to introduce swappable components, but they never gained mass adoption. The CMF Phone tried to dabble with modularity too, but it was more open-sourced than actually creating an ecosystem. The pattern was consistent: companies built complexity that users didn't want to manage.
The newer approach is leaner. HMD, best known for Nokia phones, is venturing into modular territory with the HMD Fusion, which features a removable modular back panel with Outfits ranging from basic covers to functional accessories like a Smart Outfit with a flip-up flash. CMF, a sub-brand of Nothing, has released the CMF Phone 2 Pro, focusing on modular accessories that attach to the back panel, allowing users to swap in add-on lenses such as fisheye or macro, and magnetic folding stands. These are not attempts to deconstruct the entire phone. They're focused, practical additions.
For Australian businesses and exporters watching the Asian market, the signal is clear. The $2 billion magnetic accessory ecosystem is not a temporary fad. It's foundational infrastructure for a new category of hardware expansion that sits between traditional phone cases and core device replacement. As Chinese manufacturers like Tecno establish modular ecosystems and Asian supply chains optimise thin-component manufacturing, companies that understand this shift have early advantages in distribution and service.
The remaining uncertainties are real. The cost of maintaining modular accessories compounds on the manufacturer side, while buyers need to justify spending money on a new smartphone and add-ons. The Modular Phone remains a concept platform rather than a retail product, with Tecno building the system as a scalable foundation for future AI tools, storage expansions and lifestyle accessories. Translation: no commercial model exists yet.
But the direction is unmistakable. When flagship phone design converges on thinness as a core virtue, hardware modularity stops being optional. It becomes a practical answer to a real constraint. The magnetic foundation is already in place. The next generation of Asian smartphone makers is betting that consumers will prefer carrying what they need when they need it, rather than paying premium prices for capabilities they rarely use. After a decade of failed experiments, that's a thesis worth watching.