Google's modular phone is revealed, launch date still to be determined

If you've ever imagined picking out the individual parts and assembling your own smartphone, Google's modular phone "Project Ara" can help you fulfill this wish.

During the MWC2015 conference, Google's partner YEZZ officially unveiled the prototype of a modular mobile phone product based on this project: using electro-permanent magnets (the distribution of the internal magnetic circuit is controlled and converted by an electric control system so that the permanent magnetic field is self-balanced within the system) to fix modules that can realize various functions, users can replace the module components on their mobile phones at will.

The concept of modular mobile phones was proposed as early as when smartphones first emerged. Can it be realized and bring about a new mobile phone revolution? "From the reactions of the two-day conference, people are very interested in this phone." Stephanie Morell, a staff member of YEZZ, told the reporter of "China Business Daily" on the scene that although there is no timetable for the product to be launched, YEZZ hopes to increase the number of creative modules to 100 by the end of the year.

Changeable modules

At the YEZZ booth in Hall 5 of the main venue of the Barcelona Expo, Stephanie Morell told reporters that the mobile phones on display are still conceptual exhibits, but they believe that cooperation with Google on modular phones will be very smooth and this market has great potential.

YEZZ, a local mobile phone manufacturer in Miami, USA, has been selected as one of the first module suppliers for Google's Project Ara project. The company has been steadily developing in Latin America, the United States and Europe, producing products for the mass market. Before MWC, YEZZ also established a dedicated website to promote this cooperation.

At the MWC booth, YEZZ showed off the mobile phone samples and components that it collaborated with Google on. There were many small grids in the "dissected" body, which were used to place different modules, and there were also clear spaces between the modules.

StephanieMorell told reporters that the metal contact points at the bottom of these modules can help consumers replace different modules. For example, NFC modules, sound modules, cameras, processors, memory, etc. Each module is like a small part, wrapped in a plastic shell, which can be installed or removed while the machine is running, and connected to the host through a special bus. These modules are not connected by twisting screws, full back cover wrapping, plastic bayonet or clips, but are fixed by permanent magnets.

"The modules of the mobile phone are plug-and-play and can be swapped at will," Stephanie Morell told reporters. Taking the "handle-protective cover" module displayed by YEZZ as an example, consumers who love playing games can choose to add the "game module" and can directly put the game into the handle protective cover to operate it.

YEZZ said it hopes to launch 100 module ideas by the end of this year.

Wang Yanhui, secretary general of the China Mobile Alliance, told reporters that the biggest surprise that modular mobile phones bring to us is that they can customize parts. Replaceable parts mean that you can choose different modules for different purposes, but this will also make the price of the whole machine too high.

There is still no timetable for listing

The modular composition makes the cost of modular mobile phones extremely high.

On this issue, Google's answer is that it is still too early to talk about the price. "We have determined the technical and manufacturing goals to keep the bill of materials cost of the basic version, entry-level Ara device between $50 and $100." Google emphasized that this is only the cost of the components, not the price of the Ara phone, and the actual price may be lower or higher than this price range.

Google believes that module developers will be able to determine the price of modules sold in the Ara module market, just as mobile application developers can decide the price of their applications in the app store.

But YEZZ has to face the problem of how to make its products more affordable.

"In the past, YEZZ was the world's first mobile phone to incorporate WhatsApp into an economical price-conscious function. Now the goal of the modular architecture of the Google project is to open up smartphone technology and attract more partners, so the price of this smartphone cannot be determined at present." Stephanie Morell told reporters.

For this reason, Stephanie Morell told reporters that there is no product timetable at this stage, and as for the pricing of mobile phone products, it may not be possible to give a definite answer in a short period of time before developing large-scale modular partners.

In addition, another problem facing modular mobile phones may be that although the degree of DIY is high, the product design is sacrificed, and these modules are more like "building blocks" for children. From the reporter's on-site observation, this product is far less cutting-edge than other YEZZ series mobile phones next to the booth.

Although Google said that users can design patterns on the module through thermal sublimation printing (using heat to transfer the pigment on the ribbon hidden inside the printer to the printing medium, and controlling the proportion and intensity of the color by adjusting the different temperatures of the semiconductor heating element), its appearance is much inferior to highly integrated designs such as the iPhone and Galaxy series of mobile phones. In addition, due to the spacing between modules, it is destined to be inferior to highly integrated mobile phones in both volume and quality, which runs counter to the current mainstream development direction of thin and light mobile phones. Moreover, when users replace modules, whether the modules are compatible has also become a problem.

A company that provides processors for Google's project told reporters that the processors for this project have not yet been mass-produced, so pricing is out of the question. "Google is also trying. As a partner, we only provide the possibility of realizing this technology."

It seems that although the "real body" of Google's modular mobile phone has been unveiled, consumers may still need to wait patiently for it to become a "real phone".

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.