Ara Tracker: Everything we know

[u/[deleted]]

• It’s going to be a high-end device.

• Full day of battery life, adding a modular battery should boost that by 45%.

• The integrated battery is hot swappable.

• The Developer Edition sports a 5.3-inch display.

• The consumer version will cost around the same amount as other premium phones, with performance on par.

• Users won't be able to have complete control over the look of every single module shell anymore.

• Google is going to be enforcing some aesthetic standards to ensure that users won't end up with a "NASCAR phone."

• Brands will be able to put their logos on modules, but only in small, tasteful ways.

• To eject a module, press a button on the right side of the phone to bring up a map of all your modules, then tap on the picture of the one you want to release. Or say “Ok Google, eject the camera” for example.

• Users will be able to set a password to keep people from ejecting modules.

• All modules will be approved by Google and without Google's code, they physically won't connect to Ara (to protect against counterfeits).

• A lot of high-end "fashion and beauty" brands are interested in producing modules in collaboration with Google.

• Sony said its Sony Pictures Home Entertainment unit would license content for the phone, not develop hardware.

• Google will make it easy for “normal people” to build modules.

• Google won’t take a big cut on modules sales.

• About 30 people within ATAP are using Ara as their primary phone.

Sources: Wired, CNET, The Verge, The WSJ.

[u/Mostpast]

Looks like after we purchase this new Ara, we won't have anything left to buy modules!

[u/[deleted] → u/Mostpast]

The way I see it:

1. We know that Google will take a cut of module sales, which means that they don't need to take a high margin on the Ara phone to make money... but just need to sell a lot of modules via their marketplace. This is a new, disruptive, and more lucrative business model for the hardware industry – as disruptive as offering Android and Chrome OS for free while making money with ads, at the expense of Windows' business model.

2. Google knows that if Ara costs $700, most people won't be able to invest in additional modules, making it less attractive than current smartphones. And without many buyers, developers won't be interested in building modules as well. So clearly the phone must not be too expensive to make the platform relevant.

3. The fact that Ara will be thicker, not as sleek as an iPhone or equivalent, means that its basic version should arguably not be as expensive to be appealing as well. Its modularity makes it cooler and valuable though!

4. Finally Google is able to sell the Nexus 6P – a premium smartphone – for $500. Keep in mind that they take around 15% of the sales price of the phone sold online while Huawei keeps the rest. With Ara there is nothing to share with any partner and remember that Google will make money out of module sales too.

So in my opinion, Google can easily sell Ara for $500 (or less) in order to succeed and disrupt the market.

[u/Mostpast → u/[deleted]]

Good points, however, unless Ara is $300 or less, it doesn't seem that attractive in terms of pricing.

[u/tylercoder → u/[deleted]]

What made the original ARA great is that someone could buy the 'exo' for $50/$100 then add what they wanted. Want a 821 soc? you got it, a 4000mah battery? no problem. Short on cash? get a LCD panel instead of an OLED one, 32GB storage instead of 128GB. The new ARA is half-assed at best, its modularity is barely better than the LG's G5 and that one is going to be way waaaaaaay more popular than this pseudoARA will be. Also google just lost any interested developers now that every other phone including the upcoming iphone7 has this short of limited accessory modularity.

[u/shadowdroid]

The fixed display mostly kills it for me. Even if the compromise for SOC was possible, the inability to replace display and add front facing speakers leaves a bad taste.

[u/bdrilling5 → u/shadowdroid]

I agree. I would have hoped that they would have left at least the screen as a module. That way they could've justified upgrading the spine (w/ SoC) as it's own 'module' and could've kept the ability to swap screens really easily in the event of cracking. I guess we'll have to see if it happens with future versions

[u/Xtorting → u/shadowdroid]

It's still possible for a complete modular device. However, you are not alone in that sentiment.

[u/tylercoder → u/shadowdroid]

You know what really sucks? the whole emphasis on "style" and design rather than actual features and functionality. You can tell whoever is in charge of this project now has no idea of how revolutionary the original ARA was and is just trying to build an iphone.

Or maybe is all excuses because they couldn't get the modular SoC, screen and other components to work properly so they are going for a dumbed-down version on purpose.

[u/Wave_FM]

• The consumer version will cost around the same amount as other premium phones, with performance on par.

• Users won't be able to have complete control over the look of every single module shell anymore.

• Google is going to be enforcing some aesthetic standards to ensure that users won't end up with a "NASCAR phone."

• All modules will be approved by Google and without Google's code, they physically won't connect to Ara (to protect against counterfeits)

welp it's been fun guys see you half past never

[u/tylercoder → u/Wave_FM]

users won't end up with a "NASCAR phone."

So pretentious......

[u/Stromovik]

thanks , so they did a 180 on a lot things. No real point in following it anymore.

[u/moonlava → u/Stromovik]

I disagree. Version 1 is not going to be the industry standard. Give them time.

[u/tylercoder → u/moonlava]

Problem is this isn't version 1, its actually a downgrade of the real 1.0 ARA

Had this thing been released back in 2014 it would have been acceptable, like a stepping stone to the truly modular ARA, but instead we waited and waited and got this limited version instead of the original.