No you can't
>davidhunt.ie/piphone-a-raspberry-pi-based-smartphone/
The piphone is actually one of the reasons I'm doing this, but the piphone itself is A) Not commercially available and B) Can't run android and is only a 'smartphone' because it has a touchscreen, there is nothing 'smart' about it.
Others have tried, sure. There's the block phone but they were so focused on 'modularity' they forgot to into capability. There's even a 'diy' phone kit for sale that you can build out of cardboard which is ridiculously overpriced and not worth it imo.
I'm making something more than a phone, it's a Mobile Mod-able System (MiMaS). Does everything a smartphone can (albeit faster, with more memory, and a longer lasting battery), and can also be modified any way you want with several 'mods' already done by me and more to come. For an extra $100 you can use it with a satellite. $20 will get you thermal imaging. Add a solar panel for $5 and you've got a personal server with cell or sat connection you can use anywhere you want I may just include the solar panel on the standard model.
Could someone build their own? Yes. Is that a bad thing? No.
I want them to build their own.
If buying mine is easier than doing all the R&D on your own, most people will go with that option, and I can still sell it to less tech-minded people. It would make a great gaming phone.
I want people innovate and hack to their hearts content. And when someone comes up with an amazing innovation? We'll add that feature and tell people how to do it to their own while kicking back some royalty shekels to the "inventor".
Seriously? All I need to do is print out a mold, cast it in metal, then hook the mold up to the extruder head on my 3d printer.
That would cost me roughly $10 to make the mold, after that less than a dollar to make each case.
As for low margins, everything these days is sold on low margins. If a business struggles because of low margins then they've got a shit business model, period. If I reach just 1% of the people who buy raspberry pi's and only half of those people are interested, and only half of those people interested actually buy my product (.0025%), after taxes my profit is somewhere around $5,000,000.
"low margin" my left nut.
I know my target markets. I know my costs. I know my risks. I know my competitors. I know my limitations and what I can/can't do in comparison to larger companies
If my business fails and it all just goes into the open source world with tons of knockoffs I still win because mod-able phones is what I wanted to begin with.
You're acting as if this is some ridiculous concept that's never been done before. You'll build your own computer but won't build your own phone? Come on now user. Quit being ridiculous.
Sage for off-topic. sorry guise