New future for the smart phones. :

In their I/O 2014 conference google showcased what they achieved with project ARA. Although the phone failed to load properly but it certainly gave the glimpse of future. If you don’t know what project ARA is then in simple term it’s a cellphone with detachable component. So you can assemble the cellphone of your choice. This make upgrading , borrowing the favorite parts easy and also extends the life cycle of the phone.  Google’s project ARA will make the modular smart phone concept a reality when they launch the modular smart phone in the coming January 2015. The project Ara is a part of the Advanced Technology and projects group which was retained by the google group in its sale of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo. The Ara group have partnership with the Phoneblock and 3D systems for this development. The expected price of the introductory base model is 50$.

 The modular smart phone is the concept to add the features to the Endo (base hardware) as a plug and play module. The user can select their features and then buy that module from the market and can add that features to their endoskeleton (base). By this the user doesn’t have to change their mobile in 2 years time, instead they can replace the old module with the new module. The module includes, RAM, Processor, camera, Screen, and lot more.

 This concepts advantages sited by the techies are             

1)      Life time of the gadgets can be increased as the user can easily update their Endo with the latest module available.

2)      Easily replace damaged parts with less cost.

3)      Easily upgrade the specific feature.

4)      Custom design ones smart phone

5)      Reduce the electronic waste

Still the project is under the development stages the developers have to work on the many barriers to finally achieve this revolutionary product. The major concerns are

1)      As the module are to be installed on the Endo, the total thickness may increase.

2)      As the phone is assembled piece, the robustness of the system is to be maintained.

3)      Fitting all the modules in an efficient way is a tedious job for the developer.

4)      As the user has the custom design option, integration of all the ports are simply hellish.

Google is planning to launch 3 sized endoskeleton. Mini, medium and jumbo. Each endow will have several module connector, e.g., medium will have 10 connectors.

ZTE also have announces its own modular smartphone project, and has not given details of their research and product details to the public. Xiaomi’s magic brick is also a project on modular smart phone development

We hope more innovations and developments come in this segment as this will reduce electronic waste which is being accumulated drastically, and also helps the user to save a lot of money. Like the project head has commented “Let the customer make … changes over their own life and their own evolution”.