A few weeks ago, Dutch designer Dave Hakkens introduced the
concept of a modular smartphone with his Phoneblocks. The modular design of Phoneblocks
would allow users to break down or assemble a smartphone based on its major
components thereby allowing easy and convenient repair of a device or
customizing a device based on specific user needs.
Today, Motorola has announced a similar project called Ara
that makes use of a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular
smartphones. The project aims to build a third-party developer ecosystem, lower
barriers to entry, increase pace of innovation and compress development
timelines.
Just like the Phoneblocks, Project Ara will consists of an
endoskeleton in which modules such as a processor, a new display, extra
battery, extra RAM or storage will be attached. The project has allegedly been
in development for a year now and Motorola is currently working with developers
including those from the Phoneblocks community to start working on modules for
the Ara as well as an alpha version of the Module Developer Kit.
