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Google reports confirmed saying its project Ara modular smartphone project has been suspended. When asked about the status of Ara, a spokesman for Google said VentureBeat phone would not come on the market, despite the company saying recently in May that an Ara phone would be delivered to developers this fall. The decision was taken by the head of Google hardware Rick Osterloh, who has been trying to streamline seemingly disorganized range of company products. News of the suspension was reported earlier today by Reuters .
This is a sad turn of events for fans of ambitious modular concept, which was put forward by the experimental group ATAP Google under former chief Regina Dugan, who left Google for Facebook earlier this year. There are three, Ara team developed a design concept that reinvented the smartphone as a series of small LEGO brick style that could be attached, rearranged, and exchanged in seconds. The logic was borrowed from the market for high-end PCs, where various aspects computer can be modified constantly instead of replacing the whole package every two years.
Project Ara proved too ambitious and costly to modular phones a reality
The Ara group planned a pilot test of the device Puerto Rico last year but finally put the plan aside an attempt to bring down the cost of the device and to resolve technical obstacles. In May, Google promised a developer version, unlike the original vision of the project, would not allow users to share the processor, the battery or the phone screen. Now it seems that the phone is more, although Reuters reports Google may allow the technology to third parties.
For what it's worth, the dream seems to live in modular Motorola, a company once owned by Google and now a subsidiary of Lenovo. The new Moto Z modular backplates for things like extra battery power, a projector and a speaker, but it is nowhere near as customizable as the concept was Ara.