Google suspends modular phone “Project Ara”

image courtesy: theverge.com

Google stops work on project Ara, an initiative to build a modular smartphone with interchangeable parts, according to a report in Reuters.

This project was introduced by Google in 2013 and aimed at building an affordable phone which could be upgraded or customized by replacing components in interchangeable modules.

google-ara
image courtesy: wired.com

This decision of terminating the project comes as a surprise, as, in May, the company was still speaking about this project at its Google I/O conference and had announced the release of a developer’s version of the phone by the fall.

Google may still bring the project back on track by licensing partnerships and agreements. The concept of the modular phone will be carried on by other initiatives such as “Phonebloks”, if not by Google’s project Ara itself.

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The concept of modular phones has created a huge amount of enthusiasm in technological communities. “But, it is difficult to bring the device into the market considering the fact that the interchangeable parts  would make the phone bulky and costly to produce”, Bob O’Donnell, who is an analyst in TECHnalysis research was quoted by Daily Mail.

The project Ara was an important effort of Google’s advanced technology and projects group, which aimed to develop new devices, but had its own ups and downs.

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