Project Ara — Google’s Modular Phone

A phone as flexible as Lego blocks, coming to you from Google.

When Google bought Motorola, a lot of people thought that all of Nexus manufacturing would be moved from LG to Motorola, however, with the sale of the mobility business to Lenovo, Google had the business pundits confused.

The sale to Lenovo was however not the first time a part of Motorola business has been sold by Google. In 2012, they had sold off Motorola’s home set-top box division for USD 2.35 billion to Arris Group.

That said, Google is no bleeding heart. It knows what it wants from every deal, and it’s a fair assumption that Google gets more from a sale than what it paid for the asset.

Google has guarded, integrated and developed the multiple Motorola patents that it has retained, giving them the edge to develop smartphones without the legal hassles on design and technology, as can be seen with Samsung and Apple.

Google also retained the Special Projects team from Motorola. Called the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, it is from the ATAP design table, that Google’s bred the revolutionary concept of a modular phone.

Google calls this Project Ara.

The concept of the modular phone is actually not new! It was introduced by an Israeli company called Modu. The idea did not catch on and they went belly up, Google however watched them and had bought their intellectual property.

Google is intending to re-introduce the idea to retail customers, and enable the customer to build his phone from base up, by choosing from the different possible components — similar to assembling the various parts like Lego blocks.

The phone construction starts with the endoskeleton provided by Google, which has two slots in the front for the screen and the buttons and has eight slots in the back for power modules, processor module, etc.

Google will open the development of the different modules to external hardware developers, similar to their Android OS development model. This model will allow smaller hardware developers to reach customers directly and also gain a niche while developing a particular part of the smartphone.

The concept has many advantages, where e-waste can be reduced, as it allows users to upgrade his phone in parts, rather than discard the entire phone and buy a new one.

This also means that he will have the freedom to also buy attachments, which he can use at his convenience; like having a bigger camera attached when he is wants to indulge in his passion of photography, could have a medical attachment for monitoring health and many more. The various attachments could be similar to buying add-ons and attachments to accessorize and enable the phone.

Google is confident that third party hardware manufacturers will build a variety of modules for Ara, thereby making it a success.

Imagine the ease with which you could upgrade your phone without shelling out an arm and a leg for the price of a new one!

A concern some design pundits earlier had was the modular and bulky look of the phone; however they should not worry. With the development of technology and advancement in nano technology, the individual components can be molded into desired shapes and reduced to miniscule sizes.

Even the mock designs that have been floating around do not look bad at all.

The introduction of the modular phone will instigate manufacturers to compete thus igniting faster developments in the technology behind each component, fueled by the fear of performance redundancy of their hardware module.

Seems like a win-win for the customers.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.