What exactly is Google's Ara project?

[51CTO Translation] Modular mobile phones, which allow users to disassemble their components at will in exchange for an ideal user experience, are they attractive in the market? Google has expressed its attitude with practical actions through the Ara project.

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Just last Wednesday, Google unveiled another new piece of news about Project Ara at its offices in Mountain View, California — and it’s clear that the company is working to transform the smartphone as we know it into a modular platform.

The Ara project was originally born in Motorola Mobility. Google retained the project when it sold Motorola to Lenovo. Its goal is to transform smartphones from the current single, mostly closed products to a complete set of the most open and connectable component ecosystem.

In her keynote at the second annual Project Ara Developer Conference, Regina Dugan, Google’s vice president of engineering and director of advanced technology and projects, spoke highly of the potential for technology platform innovation that could result from the massive changes in manufacturing and mobility that are expected to come.

Platforms are so powerful because they abstract complexity, enabling more people to participate and spurring innovation, she explained.

“Platforms are a place where a lot of brainstorming and creative thinking happens,” Dugan said. “We have to lower the barrier to entry for this kind of work so that more people can participate.”

Dugan pointed out that the Ara project aims to introduce more software development features to hardware development work, which means that the new tools will allow more enthusiasts besides professional hardware designers to participate in and create the development process of electronic modules.

Paul Eremenko, the head of the Ara project, described the Ara project as a positive attempt to democratize the mobile hardware ecosystem. "In many ways, you can think of it as Android for hardware," he said, referring to the Android open source project, not proprietary Android services such as Google Play.

Eremenko also discussed the Spiral 2 prototype, which uses the recently released version 0.2 of the Module Developer Kit (MDK), and Spiral 3, which will be unveiled in the second quarter of this year and aims to bring Project Ara hardware to a feature set similar to that of current mass-market smartphones.

"We are not far from success," Eremenko said, noting that while the hardware design is complete and most of the software is built, there is still a lot of work to be done on the project around firmware and other issues.

For example, in the Spiral 3 prototype, hardware modules will communicate through inductive connections rather than direct electrical contact. Ara engineers are also working to address a flaw in the electropermanent magnets (EPMs) in the "cavity" (i.e., inside the phone's frame or body). Incidentally, the EPM mechanism will be used to connect and disconnect hardware modules.

Although the news about 3D printing has been very popular in recent years and it has indeed shown certain potential in personalized manufacturing, the reality that the Ara project has to face is that the current 3D printing technology is still far from meeting its actual needs. In the Spiral 2 prototype design, the sample is injection molded from polycarbonate material and printed with sublimation printing.

Later this year, Google plans to run a market pilot in Puerto Rico with OpenMobile and Claro, using food trucks to deliver Project Ara devices to customers because it doesn’t have a retail supply chain in place.

Eremenko said that the Ara project "can reshape the development prospects of the mobile field." Although it is more conservative than Google's past statements such as "the Web has won", the above conclusion also reflects Google's own uncertainty about the future fate of the project.

Project Ara is ambitious, and it relies on an as-yet-unproven premise: People are willing to use modular phones. If buying a phone in modular units is more expensive and hassle-free than buying a single unit, it's hard to guarantee that this innovative mobile device option will succeed in a mainstream market where convenience and durability are the main demands.

Let's take a look at the following eight pictures from the Ara Project Developer Conference to look at the modular future that smartphones may face.

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Diversity

The Ara project promises to provide users with a variety of optional modules from different suppliers. Such a promise sounds very tempting indeed - but its implementation process may be quite arduous.

When Ara meets Android

Google is making changes to Android to help it work well with modular phones. An early version of the Ara manager app is shown above. Google Play will eventually offer a variety of swappable hardware modules for Ara phones.

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Entering the smartphone market

Google plans to organize an experimental marketing event for Project Ara in Puerto Rico, using food trucks as vehicles to sell the devices, which may be more effective than Google's previous abandoned ship showrooms.

Hardware Architecture

When does a phone cease to be a phone? The answer is when it becomes a set of hardware modular frameworks. The above picture shows the internal structure of Spiral 2, and each independent space represents the different components of the Ara project.

Choice combined with despotism

Google is currently working to find the ideal way to ensure that Ara customers can choose hardware modules without being confused. Paul Eremenko, head of the Ara project, proposed a paradox based on his observation that customers often become confused when faced with many options and often regret their decisions after making them.

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Will there be a purple model?

The question now is whether or not phone buyers will be interested in the promise of customisation options offered by Project Ara phones.

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Fragile components are now replaceable

One of the great advantages of the Ara project is that it can easily replace various easily damaged components, such as the display screen that has troubled everyone for a long time. Compared with taking the iPhone to Radio Shack and spending $80 to replace a screen, is this design idea more cost-effective? We still have to wait and see what the final result will be.

Original link: Google Project Ara: 8 Dev Conference Images

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