💬 Why Modular Design Works Better for Consumers Than Businesses

Replied to Why Modular Design Works Better for Consumers Than Businesses (Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet.)

What makes modular designs great for consumers often makes them troublesome for businesses, or why you can’t upgrade an iPhone in 2020.

Ernie, it is interesting reading this discussion of modular design. Does software fit into this as well? It is interesting to think of this alongside Cory Doctorow’s call for more adversarial interoperability. Although the technical may seem obvious, I wonder if there is a model that actually works for businesses or if it is something that happens bit by bit by chance?

5 responses on “💬 Why Modular Design Works Better for Consumers Than Businesses”

  1. Hey Aaron! I think, depending on the software and use case, it certainly can. A good example of this would be the browser wars before everything became more standards-oriented. Netscape and Microsoft were one-upping one another in ways that often made them incompatible.




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    1. Thank you Ernie for the reply. I agree there is a lot to think about. I am intrigued by how Ben Thompson recently put data portability:

      To be very clear, I’m pretty excited about Facebook’s announcement. Data portability is absolutely consumer friendly, and I’m glad that Facebook is making it easy to move photos and videos that have been lost to time to applications that are better suited for long-term storage.

      At the same time, we shouldn’t kid ourselves that this has any sort of impact on competition. It is interoperability that cuts to the core of these companies’ moats, and to the extent regulators see it worthwhile to act, interoperability should be the priority.

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      1. Kin Lane as the API Evangelist also puts forward a similar argument:

        Nobody, but us low-level delusional developers believe in API interoperability. The executives don’t give a shit about it. Unless it supports the latest myth-information campaign. In the long run, nobody wants their APIs to work together, we all just want EVERYONE to use OUR APIs!

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