Motorola Announces Project Ara, An Open, Modular Smartphone Hardware Platform

Kitaro9202

High Supremacy Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
40,340
Reaction score
667
Remember Phonebloks and how we all had a good laugh about how unworkable and idealistic it was? It turns out Motorola has been working on a similar project for the last year, and it's called Project Ara. This is really happening.


Here's what Ara is, according to Motorola:

The design for Project Ara consists of what we call an endoskeleton (endo) and modules. The endo is the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter--or something not yet thought of!

Motorola isn't just taking the Phonebloks vision and running with it. The company will be working with Phonebloks and its developer community to make a modular phone possible. Motorola will soon start seeking input from so-called Ara Scouts to help the Google subsidiary shape the future of Project Ara. In a few months, Motorola will begin inviting developers to design modules for the Ara platform – a Module Developer's Kit (MDK) could be ready as soon as this winter.


It almost goes without saying, but if Motorola (with Google's backing) can make this work, it's going to be an honest-to-goodness revolution in the smartphone industry. Want a better camera, but don't need much storage? You can spend big on the image sensor and cheap-out on the NAND. Speaker in your phone busted? Just disconnect it and add a new module. Rather than buy a whole new phone, you could simply upgrade the parts you want.

It's also worth noting the crowd-sourced "Thunderclap" campaign for Phonebloks is happening in about 9 hours. So, the timing here seems very convenient. This idea sounds insane, but maybe it has a real shot now.
nexusae0_ara1blogpoost_thumb.png
 

Alexz_Hong

Supremacy Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
6,681
Reaction score
341
Remember Phonebloks and how we all had a good laugh about how unworkable and idealistic it was? It turns out Motorola has been working on a similar project for the last year, and it's called Project Ara. This is really happening.


Here's what Ara is, according to Motorola:

The design for Project Ara consists of what we call an endoskeleton (endo) and modules. The endo is the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter--or something not yet thought of!

Motorola isn't just taking the Phonebloks vision and running with it. The company will be working with Phonebloks and its developer community to make a modular phone possible. Motorola will soon start seeking input from so-called Ara Scouts to help the Google subsidiary shape the future of Project Ara. In a few months, Motorola will begin inviting developers to design modules for the Ara platform – a Module Developer's Kit (MDK) could be ready as soon as this winter.


It almost goes without saying, but if Motorola (with Google's backing) can make this work, it's going to be an honest-to-goodness revolution in the smartphone industry. Want a better camera, but don't need much storage? You can spend big on the image sensor and cheap-out on the NAND. Speaker in your phone busted? Just disconnect it and add a new module. Rather than buy a whole new phone, you could simply upgrade the parts you want.

It's also worth noting the crowd-sourced "Thunderclap" campaign for Phonebloks is happening in about 9 hours. So, the timing here seems very convenient. This idea sounds insane, but maybe it has a real shot now.
nexusae0_ara1blogpoost_thumb.png

Original Article from Android Police here: http://t.co/V0ZZ5SfPei
 

Alexz_Hong

Supremacy Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
6,681
Reaction score
341
Anyway, I for one am extremely interested in this project. There will be huge challenges, no doubt, but if Motorola can pull this off, it might be able to change the industry again.
 

ClockWork

Supremacy Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2010
Messages
5,985
Reaction score
0
Anyway, I for one am extremely interested in this project. There will be huge challenges, no doubt, but if Motorola can pull this off, it might be able to change the industry again.

it's funny how my friends laughed at me when i said some months ago that it's stupid that we're paying so much for phones which we can't really choose to have certain functions. looking at what motorola is saying, i'm sure the price would be a premium, and possibly limited to US at launch.

wonder if iOS/apple will buy this idea and, together with other phone OEMs, bring mobile telephony to a whole new level.
 

ClockWork

Supremacy Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2010
Messages
5,985
Reaction score
0
nice is basically like DIY PC concept bring into smart phone?

yea it's pretty much that.

good for people who know what they wanna do with their phones, than pay a good few hundred dollars with many functions which they never use for 24 months before they swap it with something newer :s13:
 

saiyan2005

Arch-Supremacy Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
15,508
Reaction score
3,517
yea it's pretty much that.

good for people who know what they wanna do with their phones, than pay a good few hundred dollars with many functions which they never use for 24 months before they swap it with something newer :s13:

WOW this idea is good man. no need to change the whole phone just upgrade what we need
 
Important Forum Advisory Note
This forum is moderated by volunteer moderators who will react only to members' feedback on posts. Moderators are not employees or representatives of HWZ. Forum members and moderators are responsible for their own posts.

Please refer to our Community Guidelines and Standards, Terms of Service and Member T&Cs for more information.
Top