Google's "Project Ara"

[pm]

The idea is to create a modular cell phone - where the pieces are interchangeable. Thus if you want a small cell phone with a great camera, then you get the "great camera" module and plug it into your small phone.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2426492,00.asp

It could be used to individually customize components before you buy the phone - so you just get what you want - or in an ideal world, you could buy a phone and then plug in more advanced modules as they become available. A bit like buying a PC and replacing the video card.

It's an intriguing idea although I can't see cell phone manufacturers embracing it since it removes a lot of their reason for existing (if I want a new camera, I don't need a new phone, I can just go to Newegg and buy a new camera module and plug it in).

 

[poofyhairguy]

What I got from it is that a higher-end Android phone with a keyboard might soon exist.

 

[RandomFool]

I feel like this is one of those neat ideas that isn't going to be all that practical. I don't see how it's possible to make something like this without it being huge. Interchangeable parts are cool but figuring out how to package them so they're easy to swap out and not make the phone an inch thick will be very difficult.

 

[magomago]

seems more useful on an OEM level --> packaging many different configurations quickly and easily. Not so sure how it'll work on the level of user configuration. Usually modularity means you give a little in terms of size and form factor; that would be reversing the 'smallllerrr' trend.

 

[PowerYoga]

would be cool if they can pull it off but it doesn't seem very practical. Also I can already see "locked down" modular phones from various providers with parts that won't be compatible from one provider to another.

 

[Mopetar]

Reminds me of another similar project: https://phonebloks.com/idea/

I think it's a really good idea, but the market for something like this is fairly niche. Google can afford to do something like this, but I doubt that it will work for them financially.

 

[BladeVenom]

I like the idea. It's something I've wanted since smartphones became the norm. Just being able to attach a game controller on the ends, upgrade your camera, speakers, or other accessories would be welcomed. I'd also like the backing to be the battery, so you can have a couple of choices as to battery size.

 

[cbrunny]

Phonebloks is exactly the same thing. I'm sure Google will do a better job.

 

[cbn]

The idea is to create a modular cell phone - where the pieces are interchangeable. Thus if you want a small cell phone with a great camera, then you get the "great camera" module and plug it into your small phone.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2426492,00.asp

It could be used to individually customize components before you buy the phone - so you just get what you want - or in an ideal world, you could buy a phone and then plug in more advanced modules as they become available. A bit like buying a PC and replacing the video card.

It's an intriguing idea although I can't see cell phone manufacturers embracing it since it removes a lot of their reason for existing (if I want a new camera, I don't need a new phone, I can just go to Newegg and buy a new camera module and plug it in).

I think it is an awesome idea.....a multi-role device (shaped like a phone) that I could configure for specialized tasks on the go.

......but then the decrease in volumetric efficiency. I wonder how much loss we going to see in that category? Or maybe this won't really matter for all practical purposes if the ultra low power screens (on the horizon) are able to compensate enough for the decrease?

 

[gorcorps]

Didn't we already shoot down a similar idea from kickstarter or something?

 

[Joe1987]

This will never be made or be available to consumers.

 

[Kaido]

Great in theory, terrible in practice. The amount of manufacturing, variable demand, advanced in connector technology, etc. just don't fly. Phones keep getting thinner with better batter life etc. Look at the new Macbook Pro laptops - they now use PCI Express SSD's internally and are pulling in 850 MB/s reads, which you simply can't do with a SATA-III SSD, no matter how fast it is.

Cool idea though!

 

[Fox5]

This is dumb. Most of the features on a phone are integrated into a single chip, and the interfaces are pre-defined by the chip makers, not by a shell builder such as Motorola. I don't think a real phone could even be built in this manner.

 

[thedosbox]

Reminds me of another similar project: https://phonebloks.com/idea/

I think it's a really good idea, but the market for something like this is fairly niche. Google can afford to do something like this, but I doubt that it will work for them financially.

Phonebloks is exactly the same thing. I'm sure Google will do a better job.

You can tell who read the linked article in the OP, and who didn't.

Anyhow, I'll be interested to see what sort of communication channel/bus they implement to support all this flexibility.

 

[MBentz]

Wasn't this Motorola's idea before Google acquired them?

 

[BrightCandle]

Its Motorola's idea.

I really like the idea of being able to only upgrade parts of the phone, to be able to progressively change it, even rebuild it before I walk out the door depending on where I am going to be bigger with a larger batter or slower processor to save power. There is a lot of potential for building your own phone that fits the shape, size and components (at least on a broad scale) that you want

The issue I see with the idea is the trade off. The build quality is going to be really hard to get to prebuilt levels, its not going to be as tough. But more importantly its going to have gaps and components that don't fill their space and you end up with spare area so the phone is somewhat bigger to account for these changes. The list of components will presumably be limited as well.

But if they managed to get a lot of components available an produce quite a lot of chassis sizes and shapes to accommodate slightly different parts that needed different dimensions it could actually end up being very cool and my next phone despite the trade off.

 

[WelshBloke]

...I really like the idea of being able to only upgrade parts of the phone, to be able to progressively change it, even rebuild it before I walk out the door depending on where I am going to be bigger with a larger batter or slower processor to save power...

You can already add a bigger battery and stick your processor in a lower power state before you leave the door.

 

[AViking]

Was phonebloks first? I like the idea but it looks like everyone is trying to do it first.

 

[Belegost]

So the problem is that things are very integrated in modern smartphone platforms, there's a reason that SoCs that do just about everything are popular.

For instance, the pretty mock ups show splitting out WWAN, WLAN, Camera, RAM, and CPU into modules. Great, except that all those modules need high speed low latency R/W access to the RAM, take a look at the current RAM bus designs, lots of pins, high clocks, this does not work with the modular design. If you go to a serial bus connection the latency is going to shoot up, and that will break CPU and WWAN (and possibly WLAN and Camera) performance. Alternatively each module will need it's own RAM buffer, which would increase the cost, size, and complexity of each module, as well as requiring some sort of supervisor to ensure coherency between RAMs. And either way you go, the RAM module would now need it's own bus arbitration controller which is currently a part of the SoC.

So let's just drop those from the separate modules, we will need one unified CPU/connectivity/imaging block.

Then what do we have left - display, battery, Flash storage, BT, NFC, wireless charging.

Micro SD and removable batteries have been available for a long time, there's nothing new here - strangely enough devices without both (iPhones in particular) seem to sell quite well...

From a repairability POV having an easily removed display would be nice. But given that the SoC targets specific display resolutions the choices would be pretty limited in what you could swap with. And overall the display is the skeleton of the design of a phone. Sticking a 3 inch display on the guts for a 5 inch phone doesn't seem like a great idea. And if I want a 5 inch display, under what circumstances would I not want to make use of the area to fit as much battery in as possible?

NFC and Wireless charging, yea I could get behind those being modular, but in some sense the available cases that add that functionality already hit this.

I see the ideal behind this, but the practical truth is that the majority of it is not feasible. At best I could see a design with 4 modules: Main, Display, Battery, Accessories. If the PCB module supports micro-SD we're done. But this will necessarily be bulkier, heavier, and less power efficient than a tightly integrated design.

 

[Denbo1991]

I like that google/motorola is pouring money into what is basically an R&D project. I don't think, however, that the end result will be modular mobile devices. Mobile devices are too size constrained to make the volume-modularity tradeoff viable. The lessons learned from trying to create interfaces for interchangeable hardware modules will be applied to something else.

 

[swanysto]

Would this mean having to install drivers?