Mobile

Motorola announces Project Ara modular smartphone

Diangson Louie October 29, 2013 · 2 min read

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Motorola has just announced Project Ara, a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones.

Project Ara aims to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software which is to “create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines.”

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In essence, Project Ara wants to give users the power to decide what your phone does, how it looks, where and what it’s made of, how much it costs, and how long you’ll keep it by allowing you to replace or customize almost every hardware aspect of your phone.

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Ara consists of an endoskeleton and modules, with the endoskeleton being the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. These modules can be the CPU, the RAM, keyboard, battery, internal storage, etc. And all of them can be replaced or upgraded.

ara_3

In case you’re wondering why the concept is very similar to Phonebloks which we wrote about last month, that is because Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group is closely working with Phonebloks creator, Dave Hakkens, on the said project.

phonebloks

As of the moment, Project Ara is in its early stages of development and is gathering feedback from the Phonebloks community and Ara Scouts. In the coming months, Motorola will start sending invitations to developers to start creating modules.

As for the launch, Project Ara is expected to arrive sometime next year.

{via} {source}

motorola project ara phonebloks project ara modular smartphone

Diangson Louie

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This article was written by Louie Diangson, Managing Editor of YugaTech. You can follow him at @John_Louie.

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68 Comments

Shavonne · 12 years ago

Unquestionably imagine that that you said. Your favourite reason seemed to be at the net the easiest thing to be mindful of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed at the same time as other people think about worries that they just don’t recognise about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top and outlined out the entire thing without having side-effects , other people could take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks

Henry Philippinensis · 13 years ago

eh panu kng mabagsak mo eung phone ? eh’di kalas kalas na eung mga blocks ? hahah xD

wew · 13 years ago

bobo syempre ggawan pa nila ng paraan yan pati ung ibang problema na makikita nila…kaya nga di pa inuunveil diba

fanatic · 13 years ago

ahh oo napanuod ko to, customized mo ang bawat detalye ng phone mo maski un simpleng color ng bilog sa gilid ng lens ang galing haha, sana mkipag colaborate sila sa LG ganda kse nung LG G2 nila para macustomize rin :3

FanBoy · 13 years ago

Development will definitely be pushed as Google wants to make a mark with their own phone. That’s the reason why they acquired Motorola Mobility in 2012. Ara will definitely encounter problems getting “modules”. Proprietary technology will definitely ba an issue. Like Nokia’s PureView, will Nokia share this should Ara see the light of day? lol

wew · 13 years ago

mejo malabo ata na ilabas yan ng nokia as module kung skalai lol pero kung magbenta man sila im sure may kamahalan ung camera module para mapaisip parin ung customers kung dun ba sila sa windows na mas mura o sa module na overpriced hahaha

wew · 13 years ago

pag natuloy na talaga to posible nang mangyari ang “best phone in terms of hardware” hahaha qualcomm processor,pureview camera module,silicone blah blah battery and so on

al · 13 years ago

It’s this sort of idea that’ll make us feel dumb for having not thought about it. As long as the modules won’t come off easliy, this is a great idea. Google’s pioneering ways is rubbing off on Moto.

richard · 13 years ago

remember may phone noon na inoofer ang globe na basic fone pero may mga jackets sold separately para madagdagan or maging feature phone siya like camera, music etc. this phoneblocks is an upgrade to it since di nalang tayo feature phones were looking for smartphones but most of the times we can’t find the features and specs we want in a single phone kaya this one really helps and will be big time especially if apple, samsung, nokia, blackberry, huwaei, lenovo and the like will support it. on that note it would be more expensive. Kaya ba ng pinoy ito?

RJ · 13 years ago

That is the Modu phone. It was bought by Google way back.. So basically, Google owned both Motorola and Modu. Alam na. :D

troll · 13 years ago

mas malupet kung depende rin sayo kung ano install mo na os.. at sana gumawa apple ng iOS para dito..

Odin · 13 years ago

Awesome! I want this to happen but never expected it to come true!

benchmark · 13 years ago

if this would succeed, nako, like what I post sa FB, possible na gumawa ng camera module ang ibat ibang company…say Nokia purview na module, processor by samsung, etc. that would be great… :-)

and possible this would be my next phone to my Motorola Droid Razr :-)

name · 13 years ago

nice, di mo na kailangan mga bago ng phone taon taon pag naiiwan na yung specs ng ng smartphone mo mas tipid yan

wew · 13 years ago

mas okay sakin tong phone na ganito para laging top-of-the-line ang specs pero di nasasayang ang mga nabibiling phone na napaglumaan na ang hardware.

wew · 13 years ago

suportado ko talag to mula nung napanood ko ung phonebloks kaso nagdodoubt ako kung kakagatin to ng consumers design-wise,pero nung nakita ko ung photos angganda ng deisgn mas ok pa sa cheap plastic smasung phones =D

roy · 13 years ago

hala, nakita ko na to sa kickstarter ah. inadopt ng motorola ung concept

Nam · 13 years ago

HI,

I do hope they succeed with that, but really not sure. Especially motorola lost a lot to apple and samsung…

Cheers Nam

Diorarat · 13 years ago

May sugar daddy naman si Moto.

imgerrymhy · 13 years ago

i do hope this one snowball to an end product — this might make Motorola a more noticeable phonemaker. The problem however is if no company followed. Sana may mga sumunod din — maybe OEMs.

RJ · 13 years ago

When the concept pictures from Phonebloks where shown, I felt like, meh. Iniisip ko how would you ensure that each piece stays in place? Pero nung nakita ko na yung mga pictures na yan from Project Ara, it suddenly looks cool and it looks like it has a potential. The endoskeleton blew my mind!

dan · 13 years ago

Parang PC na ah BUILD your RIG…

abuzalzal · 13 years ago

Niche concept for the niche market

I doubt if it will ever succeed (let alone come into fruition)

Motorolla can’t even market and price their own products right, oh well.

Aburatmoliit · 13 years ago

Hilig magmagaling ni devil, este devil’s advocate kuno.

Lest you forget, videophone exists only in scifi pictures before.

You won’t admit but there’s a hint of you being awed by the brilliance of the idea but jealous at the same time you were not the one who were able to think about it first.

What have you done, by the way?

Abudaldal · 13 years ago

Sinisira mo lang ang image ng blog na to. Pwede ka maging politiko :)

wew · 13 years ago

di man ganun kalakas ang motorola sa smartphone market, im sure kakagatin to hindi dahil sa brand kundi dahil mismo sa phone =D kahit ako di ko iisipin kung anung brand to xempre ung phone muna kasi bago pa lng eh….kung may sumunod na mga ibang companies saka na papasok yang “brand” factor

wowabuzalzal · 13 years ago

and i guess google heard you. clap clap. not

abuzalzal · 13 years ago

Shut the fuck up, you fucking boozers!

Aburatmoliittalaga · 13 years ago

You always wanted to appear to be a know-it-all guy, but even your sentence construction is terribly wrong.

Pa let alone let alone cheche bureche pa, mali naman.

Wrong: I doubt if it will ever succeed (let alone come into fruition)

Correct: I doubt if it will ever come into frution, let alone succeed.

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=240236

teacolandia · 13 years ago

@Aburatmoliittalaga

Walang mali sa taong nag-do-droga gaya ni @abuzalzal, LOL!

@abuzalzal
Sige, shabu pa, shabu pa!

rasengan · 13 years ago

kahit ang galing ng concept na to? bka d mo lang naintndhan?

hahaha sana mkpag colaborate sila sa ibang companies na gwin to tulad ng LG kikita parin naman sila ee

LOL · 12 years ago

As if you are so great in analyzing phones (or maybe you do anal-ing instead?).

I never saw you post any positive comments on any article by Yugatech (heck, you even go ad hominem on the author). While it may be good to criticize be sure to make your comments verifiable and true. Hindi yung para kang asong tahol lang ng tahol o kaya yung kapitbahay naming machine gun ang bunganga.

LOL · 12 years ago

As if you are so great in analyzing phones (or maybe you do anal-ing instead?).

I never saw you post any positive comments on any article by Yugatech (heck, you even commit ad hominem to the author). While it may be good to criticize be sure to make your comments verifiable and true. Hindi yung para kang asong tahol lang ng tahol o kaya yung kapitbahay naming machine gun ang bunganga.