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

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

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[charleski]

AxMi-24[/url]":1sf0k1sn]

ronamadeo[/url]":1sf0k1sn]

AndromedaB[/url]":1sf0k1sn]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.

From that perspective a phone that dissipates the energy by popping-off the battery and a couple of other modules would actually be more durable as you aren't pumping all the deceleration force into the casework around the screen.

 

[charleski]

Taracta[/url]":1qvpezyl]You guys have forgotten that most of the early computer platforms were closed systems as in not readily expandable if at all. About the only early computers that were expandable were Apple's and later on PCs and as you can see Apple and PCs still exists the others are gone!

Let me introduce you to the S-100 bus from 1974, which formed the backbone of the earliest personal computers. Everything was modular - you started off with nothing but a chassis and backplane and then chose which boards to slot into it.

The Apple Mac's closed, integrated system was a novelty when it arrived ten years later (and an essential part of the design, since the modular approach imposed a definite support burden on the purchaser).