Google scraps upgradable phone Ara – NordicHardware

Google’s ambitious project Ara, phone where basically everything is going to change and upgrade, is now said to have been shelved indefinitely.

Ara is the name of Google’s concept phone that has its roots in the initiative Phonebloks – a project with the goal of producing mobile phones that do not need replacing as often as today’s devices, but instead upgraded when necessary. The idea retrieves partly inspired by desktop computers, such as can be supplemented with a new video card when the old no longer keep up, or a new storage when space runs out.

With Ara was the idea that more or less all the components to be customizable, from the camera to the processor. The components are attached to a common base, called “Endo”, which acts as an open platform to which hardware manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Sony can develop and sell their own components.

Concept phone was supposed to be launched in a developer version already in autumn, followed by a consumer version next year, but now Reuters reports that the plan should be scrapped.

Modular phones on the road – but not in the same format

the Google division Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP), which stood for the development of the ARA, which began when ATAP was still part Motorola Mobility before the latter sold by Google to Lenovo. ATAP has since continued as a division of Google, and Project Ara has been left under Google’s auspices.

It is worth noting also that the modular phones in other forms has got some room in 2016, with phones like LG G5 (which can be expanded by including the headphone amplifier and camera grip) or Lenovo Moto Z (which may be expanded in modules called “Moto ease”). Both of these examples, however, only partly modular, and not upgradable to the same extent as Ara.

Google has not yet confirmed the information from Reuters, so the rumor is still considered to be unconfirmed. The same source states that even if the Ara as the product has been scrapped so, Google may cooperate with other players and handset manufacturers to get the same technology on the market through various licensing agreements. When or if that is the case remains to be seen.

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