Project Ara – Google's modular phone project

Indeed, the classic definition of "phone" hardly applies to these devices anymore. They're Cray 2 supercomputers (well, "super" back in the day) shrunk into a matchbox and include, as one tiny program making use of the mic/speaker/radio, a "telephone"-like capability.

Once upon a time, when I was younger, I felt very strongly that I needed a computer with everything replaceable. I wanted to replace a CPU when it got too slow, new graphics card, upgradable RAM, storage, etc. But I found that in the end while I'd make small upgrades, I still replaced my computers at close to the same rate. That because some standard that was built into the old machine was no longer fast enough or wide enough for newer uses, or an interconnect standard changed (think ISA, to PCI, to PCI-X, to PCI-e) The other reason is while i could upgrade some parts, I couldn't upgrade all the parts, and pretty soon those parts were now two or three years old. They were no longer as reliable as a brand new system.

I wonder with these modular phone ideas, if we're looking at the beige box PC industry all over? And whether it will be a good fit to mobile or whether you'll buy your modular system in a year, and then find in another two years that there is a new modular interconnect version without backwards compatibility, and gradually you won't be able to find modules that work with your current frame, so you have to replace that, and maybe the some of your old modules don't work with the new frame, so you have to replace them at the same time. Like a lot of beige bok PC geek, you'll end up with a drawer of old modules in a drawer that you hardly ever find a need for, but you cant bring yourself to throw them away unless they're actually broke. The smart person will just buy all new modules when they replace the frame (that what most people did when they replaced their beige box, because why upgrade but still carry over that old junky graphics card). Pretty soon your at a point where the primary benefit of modularity in not upgrading pieces, but the ability to spec exactly the phone you want when buying. But in reality there are a lot of phones on the market now, and you can come pretty close.

I don't know that this will be the case, but its how I'd bet it would end up playing out.

I like this train of thought.

I doubt they can make a good, commercially viable phone straight away. If they just could release a backbone and a starter set of modules at a nexus7-ish price point, that might get things going. They need to get this thing into some people's hands (especially potential module developers) and see what they can do with it.

Also, selling this as a way of long lived phone sounds like a terrible USB. I would put 'easily repairable' above it but the real value is the potential module ecosystem. Without that it's just some form of cheaper and that's a hard promise to keep.

Phone is a relatively small part of what smartphones are. Is the phone a module here? It would be interesting to know what all the starter set modules do.

It's disappointed to see all the cynicism on this thread. Commercial viability aside (come on, who knows), this is a cool fun project with interesting possibilities for making hardware innovation accessible.

Too heavy was a common complaint lobbed at the Nokia Lumia 920 by reviewers. I personally don't mind, but a lot of people did.

heh. you guy really have any hope? just count the number of devices google and its nexus partners released without even a sd card slot! motorola too since the google devices started.

the market demands that fast obsolency and they are evil now. the only thing holding back the nexus one as a strong daily phone is that it have no space for more than 5 modern apps. it does if you hack android 2.3 to install apps on the SD...

anyway. i wouldnt hold my breath. this is being done just to fail and harm other people pursuing it honestly. cynic much? probably. but i am mostly stating facts. how much does a sd slot saved in costs from your $600 phone? nothing. hiw many years its lack cut from the device longevity? more than half.

edit: plus the feature they advertise more is electro magnets! on a device where the biggest concern is battery... and which will have a case anyway that could hold everything together in case they used simple mechanical latches.