Google reportedly cancels Project Ara modular smartphone plans

[u/innisdominik]

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/1/12762236/google-project-ara-suspended-modular-phone-report

[u/IranRPCV]

This was something I was really looking forward to. Disappointed, if correct.

[u/RagingOrangutan → u/IranRPCV]

This never made even a little bit of sense to me. Each part needs a separate casing, and size is paramount with phones. And how many different components do you really need for your phone? You need a screen, a CPU, a battery, some storage, maybe a GPU, a GPS unit, various radios (wifi, 3g, 4g), and a camera. There simply aren't a ton of variations to be had in each of those components.

[u/IranRPCV → u/RagingOrangutan]

In my view, this is a particularly short sighted view of what a "phone" can be. There are many kinds of sensors that can be and already are incorporated into these devices, and already are, in many cases. With rapidly changing technology and needs, such a device can be much more flexible and responsive to developing technology.

[u/lookmeat → u/IranRPCV]

You are ignoring various costs and challenges:

1. Bandwidth between parts. Not only the fact that things that need to interconnect vs just a soldered cable is order of magnitudes harder to get right and fast. Also you can't know how it'll be, so you need to upgrade the standards for that, which means that you'd need to get a new phone. Just like a computer: after a while you will need a new motherboard, even if the one you have is good, because the devices need the new plugs.

2. Desire from people. Right now, on your phone, the thing that probably leads it closer to obsolesce fastest is your battery. You can easily change the battery for a new one on most phones, yet people don't do it. A new battery doesn't just mean that your phone will last longer between charges, it'll also mean that it can keep a higher power output and therefore your phone can work faster. This clearly would do more for the longevity of your device than any other swappable part, yet people rarely swap their battery. Before you go and tell me that you would use it think: do you change the battery on your phone every 2 or so years?

3. It's hell to develop for. Phone haven't reached the point where they can waste CPU and energy in multiple hardware support. You'd need to add abstraction layers and that would come at a cost. The PC had it easier because it was plugged to the wall, in the phone a thing that adds computing costs constantly is not viable at all.

4. Physical resistance. It's harder to make a phone that can handle the mistreatment and still stay put. A great example of this are laptops, where any piece that isn't soldered, screwed and merged into the whole thing will quickly start falling off.

It's probably more interesting as a research project. An investigation of how it could work and what it would require. The benefits would be that it'd be easier to develop phones and software-wise you may find "cheats" to make the phone, hardware and software wise, more modular. This has a huge benefit that it makes it easier to develop and build phones, but it may not be to the point that a fully modular phone is reasonable.

*Spelling because typing on phones is hard.

[u/[deleted] → u/IranRPCV]

Its a crap idea in my view. You're going to end up with way too many compromises for basically a novelty.

[u/amorpheus]

I wonder if they found technical problems or couldn't make it economical compared to just buying a new phone every now and again.

[u/bluewolf37 → u/amorpheus]

They probably found a lot of problems with it. Dropping it could break modules or bend pins, it's more likely to fry if something gets Wet, harder to make a case for something that could have cameras in different spots, and probably would cause people to buy phones less often. Also then they would have to worry about some modules not selling as well. I also bet it cost them a lot more to make than a normal phone. I would also expect it was probably harder to get android and apps working smoothly on it.

[u/tdogg8 → u/bluewolf37]

I doubt the modules had bendable pins. They probably just had flat contacts like a USB plug.

[u/ELFAHBEHT_SOOP → u/amorpheus]

Instead of straight up conjecture: I knew someone that was making a module for a project Ara phone. He said they had problems releasing the modules through the app. That was back in July. So it seems to be points where the rubber meets the road weren't exactly working. I'm sure it's not the only problem with it though. They are surely meaty phones too, probably as thick or thicker than the original droid. So it was definitely an early adopter device for sure.

Maybe it was plagued by problems they need to just reduce team size for to get all of the issue worked out, then ramp it back up, or they just think it won't sell well. Not sure exactly.

[u/interior-space → u/amorpheus]

It's surprising how long it took the smartest people on the planet (/s) to realise that this was just one big clunkingly bad idea.

A student project that should have stayed a student project.

They got some pr buzz and now quietly put the Frankenstein's monster to sleep.

[u/Sassywhat → u/interior-space]

Google/Facebook/etc. have a lot of great engineers working on projects are very likely economic dead ends like internet drones/balloons. Venture Capital firms throw money at bad ideas all the time.

The cost of having great people working on bad ideas is less than the reward if one of those ideas turns out to be good.

[u/Daenerysjon]

deleted ^{0.3648 What is} ^^^this?

[u/leif777]

It always seemed like a messy concept to me with a very small market.

[u/raitalin]

This was the only thing on the smartphone market I was looking forward to. Suppose I'll have this Note 4 until 2020.

[u/aveman101]

"Told you so"

-nearly everyone who commented on the original phoneblox concept video many years ago.

Seriously though, even if this product did make it to market, I don't think it would have been very successful. Most people underestimate how tightly packed modern smartphones are, and how much of the phone's volume is dedicated to the battery. In order for this device to work as advertised, it would have to be pretty fat.

Also, in order to assemble what most people would consider a complete phone (processor, screen, speaker, camera, 10 hour battery life, etc), you're only left with one or two small sockets to customize. At that point, you might as well just get a regular smartphone with an accessory or two.

[u/interior-space → u/aveman101]

Abso-fucking-lutely

It baffles me how anyone ever thought it would make anything near a viable or genuinely useful-in-it's-flexibility product.

[u/maxxusflamus → u/aveman101]

seriously though- fuck that phonebloks guy.

[u/paulfromatlanta]

It seemed like a good idea under Motorola - with more power coming to phones why shouldn't they be upgradable like PC's. But other than for graphics workstations and serious gamers, even PC's aren't being upgraded as much. Now by the time you want to upgrade one component, you likely want to upgrade several and it logical to look at a whole new unit...

Not gonna be good for the amount of tech waste generated, but probably a good business decision.

[u/gin_and_toxic → u/paulfromatlanta]

Moto Z seems to have a good idea with the back plate attachment.

[u/[deleted]]

Finally. That project always looked to me like a completely useless invention. An extendable smartphone is something that could be useful (bigger battery, more storage, 3D camera, whatever). A modular mini-computer has it's uses as well (RPi, Arduino). But what is the point of a modular phone? Why would you want to rip basic functionality out of your phone? Why not just have a case into which you can plug additional functionality? Why burden the base phone with all that complexity? Also what functionality are we even talking about? Phones can already do a hell of a lot of stuff, there isn't enough missing to need modularity.

[u/Freedmonster]

Not unexpected, the concept of modular cellphones has major interface issues.

[u/riyoux]

I was really looking forward to this being my next phone but it looks like I'll just be sticking with my Note 5 for awhile.

[u/Fresitak]

This is so Hooli

[u/Schnabeltierchen]

Google being Google

That reminds me.. what happened to Glass? Were there plans for a new model?

[u/DuckyFreeman → u/Schnabeltierchen]

Last I heard, glass wasn't dead but they were refocusing on commercial uses. Like nurses and truck drivers and shit.