Project ARA: Google's Modular Model For Smartphones Could Be A Game Changer.

Have you had the bad experience of buying this new shiny smartphone only to be hit by the bad news that the parent company is closing shop, stopped app support of discontinued the phone outright? Did you just buy a phone just because of its camera or speakers and find out that it lags in other features?  This has happened to me on two occasions with the Palm phones and most recently Blackberry.

I have for quite some time wondered if we could build our phones like desktop computers (back in the day) and make improvements on its components like installing a better camera, speakers etc which was exactly what the guys at Google thought when they established Project ARA.

The idea from inception was to let you build your phone from scratch choosing all the parts yourself.  Ara could have been the last phone you'd ever need as it gives you endless possibilities of swapping out the processor and cellular radios when newer ones come along, and you'd be up to speed. Google would provide the "endoskeleton" -- the equivalent of a PC's motherboard -- and an ecosystem of hardware partners would have done the rest.

Fast forward present day ARA, core components such as the processors are not swappable.  So instead of letting you build your own future-proof phone, the new Ara is about giving you a phone with mix-and-match features you can't get anywhere else.

The ARA Developer edition shipping later this year will initially come with four modules: a speaker, camera, E-Ink display and an expanded memory module which are some things high-end smartphones don't do so well.  The ARA team believes its modular platform opens the floodgates for third party hardware that never would have made it to smartphones before: from wireless car keys, one use pepper spray, glucometer for diabetics and the list of applications is endless.

The Project Ara team has already modularized the battery technology with hot swappable batteries                                          

       

Project ARA presents the advantage of future proofing your mobile phone where the user need not replace his/her mobile phone because a hardware became obsolete, only the module needs to be swapped out,  ARA procudes very little e-waste making it an environmentally friendly option.

Other phone models have started to adopt this modular model such as the LG G5 as we anticipate this model would definitely be a gamechanger in the smartphone business,