Project Ara

Is the dream of the modular phone dead? Not if you ask Lenovo and Motorola, though their concept of a modular phone is not exactly what you might have in mind. Closer to that dream that went down with Google’s Project Ara is something that Facebook has in mind. Yes, Facebook has an idea for a modular phone. Or rather, it has patented what is technically a generic “modular electromechanical device” that, in at least one permutation, could also function as a phone.

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Project Ara, the codename for Google's modular smartphone project, has been dead for months. Though originally set for a consumer model release in 2017, Project Ara ran into troubles apparently too great to overcome, and Google ultimately scrapped it. The idea of using modules to customize and upgrade a smartphone one component at a time was tantalizing, though, and many were thinking outside of the box at all the possibilities...including Google itself, which had planned a small aquarium module.

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The dream of a truly modular smartphone is dead. Or at least the dream of having a consumer product by 2017. While the LG G5 and Moto Z sort of foreshadow what is possible, the fulfillment of the ideal modular smartphone died when Google killed off Project Ara, leaving us to wonder what could have been. Fortunately, the folks over at Phandroid were able to get their hands on one of the later iterations of the near complete Project Ara smartphone, revealing details of the stillborn mobile device.

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Google has given up on Project Ara, another of the company's more intriguing skunkworks projects shuttered without making the big waves the initial hullabaloo promised. Ara was to usher in a new generation of upgradable, wildly flexible smartphones: a platform that would both buck the trend of the relentless replacement cycle, and unlock possibilities for niche and custom gadgets that wouldn't make financial sense as a traditional device.

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Project Ara is dead, with Google confirming reports that it has indeed axed plans to bring its modular smartphone to market. Ditched after more than three years of development and numerous setbacks, the Ara vision of a smartphone which could be upgraded piecemeal with various interchangeable components proved simply too tricky to commercialize.

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Perhaps to no one’s surprise, but surely to everyone’s disappointment, Google might be shelving the once highly popular Project Ara that would have delivered a truly modular smartphone with interchangeable core components. At least that’s what two sources are saying. Given the repeated delays and a significant change in the project’s vision and implementation, that is almost expected. Also expected, however, will be the backlash from different supporters, including hardware makers whom Google already announced and waved around like trophies, if Google does throw in the towel, temporarily or otherwise.

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Nintendo has traditionally been steadfast in its dedication to hardware, even as rival consoles have out-performed, out-exclusived, and eventually out-sold it in the process. It's taken the company years to concede that yes, smartphone gaming and leveraging the value of its game IP might be a good way of making money, and sure enough Nintendo's stock price has soared as Pokemon GO became a must-have on iOS and Android.

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If you have forgotten about Project Ara, Google's promise of a modular smartphone, you can, perhaps, be forgiven a bit. Promised, although tentatively, to launch sometime in early 2015, the now almost mythical device is still nowhere to be seen. Except in developer conferences, blog posts, and, apparently, benchmarking websites. An certain Google Project Ara, model A8A01, appeared on GFXBench and while most of the specs seem normal for a high-end smartphone these days, one detail or two make it sound more like an odd and gigantic tablet instead.

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Google's Project Ara modular smartphone just can't catch a break, with plans to use fancy electropermanent magnets scrapped after they struggled in testing. The Ara team had planned to use an innovative new module attachment system with, it was promised, the flexibility of a magnet but the power-efficiency of more physical connectors. Turns out, though, that technology wasn't quite ready for primetime.

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It seems that the dream has officially been delayed. The Project Ara team has officially confirmed what was already foreshadowed in yesterday's tweets. The modular smartphone won't be coming this year. Instead, it will have a 2016 launch which still has no new timeline. And instead of doing it outside of the country, the first Project Ara smartphone might be launched somewhere in mainland US instead. Naturally, despite its best efforts to assuage fears, the delays would inevitably worry not just fans but also existing and potential hardware partners.

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It's probably too premature to sound the alarm, but Project Ara might be further delayed than it already is. Although more positively and warmly welcomed than Google Glass, Project Ara is also more ambitious and more experimental, which makes sudden shifts in plans not that surprising but still nerve-wracking. Without much explanation, Project Ara is practically saying that it will no longer have its pilot launch in Puerto Rico, maybe not even this year anymore. At the same time, the team reassures the public that it won't be going the way of Google Glass.

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Beating Google's Project Ara by a few months, or so we hope, Fairphone has just opened the pre-order doors for its own take on the modular smartphone design. Though not exactly how some might envision "modular" to be, the Fairphone 2 is nonetheless designed to not only be robust enough to survive most accidents but modular to the extent that parts can be replaced or repaired when damaged. Admittedly less sensational than Ara, this approach does have the benefit of allowing Fairphone 2 to go out of the woodwork earlier.

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