Motorola Announces “Project Ara,” a modular phone hardware platform

What would Google do with a handset company? We're about to find out.

Read the whole story

 

[another ars account]

Two thoughts strike me when reading this article:

I want one.

It's not going to succeed in the market.

(fwiw, ymmv, etc etc)

 

[ronamadeo]

AndromedaB[/url]":szrxxr9o]this is pretty dumb IMO

durability is going to be a significant issue

I've seen people drop their phones and have the battery fall out... Now there's going to be processor and camera parts all over the floor.

 

[BlackHex]

The concept is geeky awesome. But it's goin to cone at the cost of form factor improvements such as curved screens, thinnes, size variations, etc

A removable battery is a must for keeping a device running in the long term, but being able to upgrade the CPU? I'm less sold now that basic phone hardware is already so advanced...

 

[y*!|$7v0Qn]

another ars account[/url]":14qc4mpk]Two thoughts strike me when reading this article:

I want one.

It's not going to succeed in the market.

(fwiw, ymmv, etc etc)

I agree, it's a great idea if it could be done, but it won't. Too many companies would have to adopt Motorola's standards to make it worth the drawbacks in durability, and most companies don't want to sell you a single phone part when they can make a good deal more of a mark up on selling you the entire phone. Especially when that phone breaks and has to be entirely replaced instead of having salvageable parts.

 

[avant]

For this to work, baseline Android should include all the drivers for every single interchangeable device, or make it easy to add drivers once a new hardware module is inserted on the phone. I am a bit skeptic about that happening anytime soon...

 

[android_alpaca]

omniron[/url]":22gfa77p]
The mobile phone market is huge, and can support niches, but what niche does this fill? Neck beards (apologies for the slur...) who want to always have the fastest processor but without having to buy a new phone?

Otoh, i could see some use in having a peripheral slot or 2.

A lot of would-be cellphone designers are always listing their dream phone... this processor with that camera, this capacity battery with that size screen, and an external SD card slot, etc... now here's the chance for them to build their own cellphone... or maybe they will just complain how Google is "preventing" their unrealized design genius with silly constraints like "physics" and "money."

 

[darwinosx]

I'm quite sure this was planned before Google bought Motorola but just like buying Motorola Google is apparently unaware of how bad an idea this is. Only a handful of people would be interested in doing this. I seriously doubt this ever becomes a commercial product.

 

[AndromedaB]

CQLanik[/url]":5hfdcib2]

another ars account[/url]":5hfdcib2]Two thoughts strike me when reading this article:

I want one.

It's not going to succeed in the market.

(fwiw, ymmv, etc etc)

I agree, it's a great idea if it could be done, but it won't. Too many companies would have to adopt Motorola's standards to make it worth the drawbacks in durability, and most companies don't want to sell you a single phone part when they can make a good deal more of a mark up on selling you the entire phone. Especially when that phone breaks and has to be entirely replaced instead of having salvageable parts.

not only that, all new components in a generation would need to fit physical specs anyways so our variety will be limited to something like 2-3 display sizes and 2-3 package types/thicknesses assuming gaps and stuff are cool

then the interconnect specs must be updated annually/biannually or risk holding back things like the display/cpu/camera

but at this point we're pretty much back where we are now minus size/power/flexability benefits from deep integration

I think this would be a cool idea for something larger like a tablet perhaps but as a smartphone it's pretty silly

plus, what if it rains or gets wet?!? what if you're in a humid climate and the contacts corrode?!? what if someone holds their phone a fbit tighter and causes a pin to momentarily disconnect!?!

*facepalm*

I feel like this would be a fantastic engineering exercise but really there's no way something like this can succeed within the next 5 years or so.

 

[shubhampatil]

This idea is intriguing since I've never found a phone to be perfect for me.
To avoid/hide that mosaic/collage look they can cover the phone with another shell outwards giving the phone an uniform look and to solve durability issues at some extent.
Let's wait for more information.

 

[wolframium]

I don't see how this will ever work. The complicated interfaces to get everything compatible, making sure there's robust connections, etc will mean that it will be a lot thicker and heaver phone, all for the purpose of upgrading very rarely.

 

[AbsoluteChaos92]

People here are so cynical. Just because it might not ever be profitable or it might not ever be successful doesn't mean its not worth doing in the long run. And those are statements that haven't even been provable, the best you can say that it appears that it won't be a success.

And I agree that it more likely won't take off. The ideas and experimentation that comes from out the this project surely could only help the industry.

Anyone can name reasons why this project can fail. Just keep that in my mind.

 

[continuum]

So they ARE teaming up with Phonebloks.. .and yeeah the whole thing doesn't seem workable. People want the most compact phone they can get (aside from screen, which seems to dictate the whole thing), the interface bits you're going to have to stick onto each block to let it interface will be a significant issue.

That said I agree, for development or just for a toy-- or hell for the potential that maybe I'm not seeing-- this could be awesome. Lego for cell phones anyone?

 

[thomsirveaux]

I thought when watching that Phonebloks video that it would only have any chance of working with the backing of a major company, so this is that I guess. It'll be an interesting experiment if it gets past the concept/render phase.

As a side note, I am almost completely positive that Google didn't have this in mind when it bought Motorola. Seems more like a "we're losing money hand-over-fist with this Motorola thing anyway, why not see if this idea sticks" thing to me.

 

[richten]

I like it if it's really open, but I wonder if once it takes of Google will want to close it.

 

[LivingstonTheThird]

If everyone just decided something was too hard and then quit, we wouldn't be where we are today, especially with smart phones. You do realize the company backing Motorola wants to float balloons to third world countries so everyone has Wi-Fi, right? There are too many negative people here.
Go Motorola and go Google. I hope I get picked for this.

 

[goretsky]

Hello,

When I first read about Phonebloks, I thought that this reminded me of a company I had read about a while ago, but didn't remember any details. After reading the article above, I decided to do a bit more digging, and finally found it:

In 2007, an Israeli company named Modu announced a similar concept, a small phone that could be paired with various modules in order to add new functionality, increased battery life, etc.

The phones were apparently only sold in Israel, and in 2011, Modu reportedly closed its door. I say reportedly, because apparently Modu's web site is still live. I went there today and they are showing off renders of the device as an armband MP3 player, digital camera and docked MP3 player. From looking at the specs, though, it appears to be a 2G/3G featurephone and not an Android smartphone, as some reports stated.

Here's where it gets interesting, though: Google apparently bought some of Modu's patents for $4.9M back in 2011.

While it is still a little difficult to know what Google has been planning, coupled with their acquisition of Motorola Mobility a couple of months later in 2011, it seems likely they've been studying modular phone systems for a couple of years. The Phonebloks concept web site doesn't help much, but some of the the renders there remind me of Google's Nexus 7 tablet.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[MechR]

Huh, tough crowd tonight.

I, for one, am pretty stoked at Googorola making Phonebloks a reality. I was skeptical the idea would ever hit the market in any capacity, but now it has a real chance to make a splash.

More battery packs! More storage modules! Shut up and take my money!

 

[vitriolix]

another ars account[/url]":1aciz4op]Two thoughts strike me when reading this article:

I want one.

It's not going to succeed in the market.

(fwiw, ymmv, etc etc)

I don't know how you quantify success, but if they manage to sell this and I can buy it, I will count it as a success.

 

[Toasty27]

omniron[/url]":14yunedl]If android is fragmented now, what is a phone platform that is designed to be a moving target going to do for development?

Force development to step up its game. If the Linux kernel can do such a good job supporting such a wide range of hardware through kernel-space drivers, I think Android can handle the user-space side of things.

Especially when the company developing this new platform is owned by the company developing the software that's supposed to run on it.

 

[willmo]

I think this makes plenty of sense as a development platform, like Bug Labs' Blocks, but it's hard to see many consumers buying one. Modularity comes at too high of a cost to the mobile form factor. Even in desktop PCs, where size/weight/etc. are much less important, the modularity of a whitebox doesn't have mass appeal.

edit: fix nonsense

 

[AxMi-24]

ronamadeo[/url]":32ajl9vk]

AndromedaB[/url]":32ajl9vk]this is pretty dumb IMO

durability is going to be a significant issue

I've seen people drop their phones and have the battery fall out... Now there's going to be processor and camera parts all over the floor.

Yea and then 5 sec later you snap the battery back in place and continue on your way. Hardly a huge issues. Cracked screens are far higher danger today than parts falling out (especially as parts will be designed with contacts that allow for that by necessity.

This is a very cool idea and hopefully motorola will get kicked in the balls before they make it US only.

 

[MikeHartman]

I agree that this probably won't be doable at any kind of scale, but I really hope I'm wrong.

I'm sick of playing the feature slot machine. I can get the camera I want, but it's a shitty processor. I can get the screen I want, but only if I can live with no removable battery or SD card. I can get the gorilla glass, but not with the good GPU. And that's not even getting into carrier exclusivity issues.

In a perfect world we would have phones available in every possible feature combination, leveraging the benefits of integration. But that's not where we live. So if my ideal phone doesn't happen to align with whatever averaged-out buckets have been made available I'm out of luck.

I feel the same way about laptops (and tablets too, if I cared about tablets). If most people are happy with whatever's ready to drive off the lot more power to them, but I'd like the option of ordering to spec.

Yes, keeping everything tightly integrated and holistically designed means it can be smaller, thinner and lighter. But honestly, I feel like shit has been thin and light enough for a while now. Sure, given the choice I'd rather have a 3oz phone than a 7oz phone, but I'd certainly be willing to trade some of that weight for additional utility and flexibility. The current phones are already 2oz lighter than my two-year-old one, and it has yet to damage my wrist or split the seams of my pocket. I'd rather they fill that 2oz with more battery than shrink it just to sexy it up anyway.

I'm not worried about looks or durability either. I would expect an outer shell that locked over all these components, and if no such thing officially existed a decent third-party case would do the same thing. As for people dropping their phones and having the batteries and other components pop out, that's what comes from having cases that just snap together. That could be fixed with these things called screws. I know they're terribly passé in mobile technology right now, but I think we can spare the extra 4 grams.

 

[logannc]

It's a long shot, but I think it has more of a chance than people think.

I have seen some people say that this will actually not have the true customization as people think it will, since it will have to fit the skeleton of the device (ie, 2-4 screen sizes, etc). While that is true... there can be more than a couple skeletons to make devices out of. While it certainly won't have the plurality of cases like the desktop PC market has, it shouldn't be a terrible thing to make 3-7 models of skeletons to make phones out of.

 

[morfraen]

The skeptics are amusing.

Do you think current cell phones are each brand new inventions made 100% from scratch or something? No, they pick a bunch of existing off the shelf hardware components and connect them all together. About the only thing unique about any phone is the case and layout of parts. This is a pretty obvious evolution of that, and also something that could finally bring to an end the ridiculous phone prices once people can see how little all the individual components cost. No more paying $100 more for 16GB of memory that only costs $10.

 

[y*!|$7v0Qn]

morfraen[/url]":1180szof]The skeptics are amusing.

Do you think current cell phones are each brand new inventions made 100% from scratch or something? No, they pick a bunch of existing off the shelf hardware components and connect them all together. About the only thing unique about any phone is the case and layout of parts. This is a pretty obvious extension of that, and also something that could finally bring to an end the ridiculous phone prices once people can see how little all the individual components cost. No more paying $100 more for 16Gb

Which is precisely why I don't think it will happen. There might be a prototype or something brought to market, but this type of device would only be successful if adopted more or less industry wide, with the same or similar level of standardization that the PC market has. And most companies don't want to give up the considerably higher profit margin that selling each device as a unit instead of piecemeal provides.

It would be nice if it does come to pass, I just don't think that it will.

 

[CaptainTightpants]

ronamadeo[/url]":cf2mykey]

AndromedaB[/url]":cf2mykey]this is pretty dumb IMO

durability is going to be a significant issue

I've seen people drop their phones and have the battery fall out... Now there's going to be processor and camera parts all over the floor.

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean the whole phone's dead ("Hey, can I borrow your CPU module for a minute? I've really gotta make a phone call."). Buying just the part that's dead conceivably saves the consumer money, yet also gives them an excuse to upgrade to the latest & greatest model before they planned to (while saving them money over the current method of entire device replacement) - seems win-win for consumers and OEMs alike. Not to mention the environmental benefits of not tossing a bunch of perfectly usable parts just to get said upgrade in CPU power.

 

[MatthewSleeman]

Is this going to be user customizable or not? Because if so that would be cool. And if it is it would shatter the US market problem of cell phone lock ins

 

[UltimateLemon]

Interesting theory. But not going to work unless they can get 3rd party buy in, which they won't get without customer buy in, which they won't get 3rd party buy in...

 

[Toasty27]

AndromedaB[/url]":2u7bqs52]

CQLanik[/url]":2u7bqs52]
I agree, it's a great idea if it could be done, but it won't. Too many companies would have to adopt Motorola's standards to make it worth the drawbacks in durability, and most companies don't want to sell you a single phone part when they can make a good deal more of a mark up on selling you the entire phone. Especially when that phone breaks and has to be entirely replaced instead of having salvageable parts.

not only that, all new components in a generation would need to fit physical specs anyways so our variety will be limited to something like 2-3 display sizes and 2-3 package types/thicknesses assuming gaps and stuff are cool

then the interconnect specs must be updated annually/biannually or risk holding back things like the display/cpu/camera

but at this point we're pretty much back where we are now minus size/power/flexability benefits from deep integration

I think this would be a cool idea for something larger like a tablet perhaps but as a smartphone it's pretty silly

plus, what if it rains or gets wet?!? what if you're in a humid climate and the contacts corrode?!? what if someone holds their phone a fbit tighter and causes a pin to momentarily disconnect!?!

*facepalm*

I feel like this would be a fantastic engineering exercise but really there's no way something like this can succeed within the next 5 years or so.

I am similarly skeptical about the ability of this design to succeed. For it to be viable in the market place, advances in smartphone technology would have slow down in pace significantly. For now, we're still seeing a doubling in performance year over year (for the most part). 4G/LTE radio technology is starting to become more common place, and cameras/batteries are simple enough that they wouldn't need a whole new platform to take advantage of significant advances. However the rapid pace of advancement in SoC's, and more specifically displays, are components that would likely require a new platform.

When the speed of advancement in the smartphone market tapers off like it has in the desktop/laptop components, I could see this idea being potentially successful.

 

[CaptainTightpants]

UltimateLemon[/url]":88twh4ff]Interesting theory. But not going to work unless they can get 3rd party buy in, which they won't get without customer buy in, which they won't get 3rd party buy in...

When there's a will, there's always a way. Remember how unlikely Android's chances seemed at overcoming the iPhone juggernaut when the T-Mobile G1 came out?

 

[dangerstranger]

I think it could succeed if they just created a processing module which could plug into different screens. Want to use it as a phone? Well you've got the phone screen. Need some more screen real estate? Use the tablet screen, desktop computer screen, tv screen, etc.

Think about how long people have their desktop computer monitors for... Phone/tablet screens are pretty advanced now, and there's no reason to have to get a whole new phone display (or even laptop) if you want to upgrade the processor/ram only.

It could also make it much easier to have all your documents/work with you at all time and on all devices (well if you don't use a dropbox type service already).

I imagine it would cut down on e-waste immensely as instead of having separate phones, tablets, laptops, rokus/apple tvs & desktops you would only have 1 or 2.

 

[Beautyspin]

thomsirveaux[/url]":vl66uyx1]I thought when watching that Phonebloks video that it would only have any chance of working with the backing of a major company, so this is that I guess. It'll be an interesting experiment if it gets past the concept/render phase.

As a side note, I am almost completely positive that Google didn't have this in mind when it bought Motorola. Seems more like a "we're losing money hand-over-fist with this Motorola thing anyway, why not see if this idea sticks" thing to me.

I doubt that. This might not be the only reason/plan they had in mind when they purchased Motorola. They must have started with the idea that they wanted to do some things to disrupt the hardware market. This could be one of the plans. They could have more plans too. Started with Moto X, this is the next. I am excited what the next could be. I believe they hired somebody from NASA or some place to head a moonshot team for Motorola to come up with such ideas and implementation..

 

[RoninX]

Beautyspin[/url]":12vbdj7x]

thomsirveaux[/url]":12vbdj7x]I thought when watching that Phonebloks video that it would only have any chance of working with the backing of a major company, so this is that I guess. It'll be an interesting experiment if it gets past the concept/render phase.

As a side note, I am almost completely positive that Google didn't have this in mind when it bought Motorola. Seems more like a "we're losing money hand-over-fist with this Motorola thing anyway, why not see if this idea sticks" thing to me.

I doubt that. This might not be the only reason/plan they had in mind when they purchased Motorola. They must have started with the idea that they wanted to do some things to disrupt the hardware market. This could be one of the plans. They could have more plans too. Started with Moto X, this is the next. I am excited what the next could be. I believe they hired somebody from NASA or some place to head a moonshot team for Motorola to come up with such ideas and implementation..

I love the idea, and I hope it succeeds.

For one thing, I really want a phablet with top-of-the-line specs, a 5.5" screen, and a full five-row qwerty slider physical keyboard. Imagine the love child of a Galaxy Note 3 and a Droid 4.

 

[Beautyspin]

CaptainTightpants[/url]":27ck4ru0]

ronamadeo[/url]":27ck4ru0]

AndromedaB[/url]":27ck4ru0]this is pretty dumb IMO

durability is going to be a significant issue

I've seen people drop their phones and have the battery fall out... Now there's going to be processor and camera parts all over the floor.

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean the whole phone's dead ("Hey, can I borrow your CPU module for a minute? I've really gotta make a phone call."). Buying just the part that's dead conceivably saves the consumer money, yet also gives them an excuse to upgrade to the latest & greatest model before they planned to (while saving them money over the current method of entire device replacement) - seems win-win for consumers and OEMs alike. Not to mention the environmental benefits of not tossing a bunch of perfectly usable parts just to get said upgrade in CPU power.

This actually could be a real use case. When all I want to do is make a call and my kid wants to play, we can swap the Processor..

 

[blacke]

MatthewSleeman[/url]":rcivizi1]Is this going to be user customizable or not? Because if so that would be cool. And if it is it would shatter the US market problem of cell phone lock ins

That's the whole idea behind this, that users buy and upgrade/replace only the individual module they need or want to.