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| modular phone components |
Each year, handset manufactures are engadged in a frenzied rat race to unveil phones with the biggest screens, the beefiest processors and a host of other jaw dropping features that aim to win over consumers. Yet in as much as this sort of competition is great for innovation, the consumer is often both the winner and the loser, caught between upgrading to a newer model and stuck with the older barely an year old model.
its this conundrum Google's ATAP (advances technology and projects) group aims to solve by undertaking what has come to be known as Project Ara.
Project Ara is a Google project to produce a modular phone with interchangeable components such as the camera module, the screen, the processor and even the memory unit. The components are held together using an electro magnet and can be easily assembled by clicking the modules together which produces a suprisingly sturdy phone.
For $50 consumers will get a basic frame equipped with a screen, Wi-Fi connection and processor. Photography bluff? Equip your phone with a better camera and memory unit or if you use your phone for more challenging tasks, why not swap out the processor for a faster one. This could in effect extend the life of the average smartphone by years and given Google's penchant to produce cheap, lean smartphones, phones potentially free of bloatware and software tricks from mainstream manufacturers. There is however the question of a reliable chain of distribution worldwide which could dampen the revolutionary potential that Project Ara may bring. You can expect to see a working model sometime next year possibly just in time for CES 2015.
