Google’s Project Ara is Dead!

Project Ara - Google’s most ambitious modular smartphone concept birthed in Google’s ATAP division, is finally dead. Google has suspended Project Ara in an effort to streamline the company’s hardware efforts.

After so much of delay and feature drops, Google finally puts Project Ara out of its sadness!

Project Ara never seemed like particularly viable product, and after the announcement in 2013, progress became very slow. The device was delayed past its 2015 commercialization deadline when plans for a Puerto Rican food truck pilot launch fell through. This year, the device was delayed again to 2017, and the Project Ara team announced that Ara would pivot from fully modular to having a fixed CPU, GPU, Sensors, Display, Battery, and Antennas. After the announcement, Ara was watered down so much it barely has a cause to exist.

If you were really hoping for a modular smartphone, not all the hope is lost forever. Report says that while ‘Google will not be releasing the phone itself,’ licensing the technology to the other parties is only an option. Will anyone dare to pick up the segmental smartphone torch when even Google has failed, though? There hasn’t been any official word from Google just yet, by following the firm’s announcement of multiple Ara partner agreements at its Google I/O conference in the coming months. Google’s official websites for the project still say that it plans to ship a Developer Edition Ara phone during the fall.

“Google will not be releasing the phone itself, the company may work with partners to bring Project Ara’s technology to market, potentially through licensing agreements, one of the people with knowledge of the matter said”

Main Aim of Project Ara

A modular smartphone that would generate much less waste, lets users to repair broken devices by replacing modules, and create a vibrant ecosystem of third-party components that would extend the usefulness and capability of the smartphones in coming days.

What problems Google was facing?

Problem is, it doesn’t play nice with the current laws of physics. Building sectional devices with separate interconnects and hypnotic locks presents wear and tear issues that can damage these components and leave them non-functional for very long term. This was the main issue Google reportedly fight back to solve – in order for the interconnects to function properly, the contacts had to make tight contact, then maintain that contact over hundreds or thousands of removals and replacements.

What is Ara?

The concept is a simple one. You buy a basic model Ara phone and all the bits can be pulled off and swapped as you see it. You can see it in a more fancy and a more powerful camera module. You will be able to buy through Google store, a treasure trove of hardware modules populated by components made by other manufacturers like Samsung and its ilk, right down to little independent devs working out of their basements like Google play for apps. The same will be followed for many other components, including things like Display panels, Physical Keywords, Memory, Scanners and Sensors, Modems and Wireless modules, and much more.

Why the modular concept is causing issue?

• §  A modular device is a tablet, phone or other device where individual components such as the screen, CPU, battery, camera, and memory can be removed by the user and replaced by others with a different specification
• §  Each module requires an individual case and a connector. These usually take space, making the resulting device larger and less smooth looking than a normal device
• §  Making a modular device is extremely difficult because modularity adds a new series of necessities and limitations
• §  Each swappable component has to remain distinct from all others. Integrating components together is a tried and tested method of cost and size reduction meaning that a modular device has always been more expensive to make
• §  Every component has to be tested with every other in every possible configuration to ensure that they all work together properly. This means that testing and certification is much more  onerous meaningfully increasing development costs

Four rules that a modular phone must meet in order for it to be successful in the market:

• §  It must make no negotiations in terms of styling
• §  Must be the same size and weight as other competing products
• §  It must offer the same functionality as other competing products
• §  It must come at the same price opinion

According to the reports, so far no device, including Ara, has met these criteria. Only the kicker here is a closing comment. Google took to its own Google+ social media platform with some pictures revealing a prototype filled with circuits and connectors, this will be a real piece of modular smartphone kit.

All these issues and Google’s desire to join its hardware efforts appear to have killed Project Ara. Still its not that clear what comes next for the hardware it designed so far. Google’s effort having failed, whereas few companies may be interested.