Motorola announces Project Ara modular smartphone

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.

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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}

Diangson Louie

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

https://www.yugatech.com

34 Comments

Tzar Umang says:

11 years ago

So this is it na :-D Cool
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abuzalzal says:

11 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.
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dan says:

11 years ago

Parang PC na ah BUILD your RIG…
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RJ says:

11 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!
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imgerrymhy says:

11 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.
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Nam says:

11 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
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roy says:

11 years ago

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

11 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
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wew says:

11 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.
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name says:

11 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
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benchmark says:

11 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 :-)
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Odin says:

11 years ago

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

11 years ago

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

11 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?
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al says:

11 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.
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wew says:

11 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
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FanBoy says:

11 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
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fanatic says:

11 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
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Henry Philippinensis says:

11 years ago

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

10 years ago

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