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Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
- flukus 10y agoI've learned to completely ignore anything launched publicly at google IO (wave, ara, glass, etc).
- helthanatos 10y agoHah, especially Android features that we might get 3 years later.
- lern_too_spel 10y agoGoogle has gotten worse and worse at this. It used to be that they would launch something right when they announced it. Then they would launch something invite-only when they announced it. Now they announce things without even having a clear idea of when or how those things will launch.
- kyrra 10y agoChromebook was a Google IO announcement, and I'm sure there are others that have succeeded.
- mmanfrin 10y agohttp://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/google-discontinues-the-chromebook-pixel-2-without-replacing-it/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/google-discontinues-t...
- notatoad 10y agothat means nothing, the first-gen pixel was discontinued before the second-gen was announced too. and the chromebook pixel is hardly the only chromebook out there. it's a thriving product line, and the pixel series is a very very unimportant part of it.
- flukus 10y agoTurning a previously open category of computing into a locked down experience never particularly excited me in the first place.
- digi_owl 10y agoAt least they have an official, documented, method for unlocking the product once you bought it.
- mmastrac 10y agoDisappointed about this one - I guess this was just too early (like glass). They had to create a lot of both hardware AND software to make it work. Expensive and risky work for a single company to take on. I was honestly holding off on a cell phone upgrade hoping to get my hands on the developer version of this early 2017.
- throwaway2016a 10y agoI had to scroll half way down the page to find someone like me... I'm disappointed as well. A lot of people here talk about performance and size. We seem obsessed with them in cell phones but at what point does performance and size become good enough and we can focus on things like sustainability and repairability.
- ihsw 10y ago> Axing Project Ara is one of the first steps in a campaign to unify Google's various hardware efforts, which range from Chromebook laptops to Nexus phones. Their new phone line will be called Pixels. http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/09/01/exclusive-googles-new-phones-will-be-called-the-pixel-and-pixel-xl/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/09/01/exclusive-googles-ne...
- colemickens 10y agoI can't help but wonder if they're co-opting the Pixel name to push ChromeOS on a phone form factor with the built-in Android runtime. It seems very unlikely, but there's a part of me still wondering.
- roymurdock 10y agoCheck out their efforts on the new Fuschia OS. I'm fairly certain it's Google's attempt to design a mobile OS from scratch to get rid of some of the overhead introduced into Android as a function of it being a Linux derivative.
- grobbles 10y ago[this will be a dead post because dang is a bitch] Ignoring that Android has been replacing ChromeOS rather than the other way around (the PixelC, and now the Android runtime on Chromebooks), your conspiracy about Fuschia is hilarious garbage. Fuschia is essentially vaporware intended for extremely small scale IoT products. It isn't replacing Android, however much Android haters might wish and dream it.
- flukus 10y agoWhat overhead is there from linux? Most of it seems to come from there own API's.
- pjmlp 10y agoNot sure, but contrary to what many think, the Linux kernel on Android lacks many APIs and the set of allowed stable libraries is quite small. With Android N, they took the extra step to kill native apps that dare to link to Android native libraries, if not part of the stable list, like libpng for example. Regarding Fushia the overhead seems to actually be anything under GPL.
- stonogo 10y agoThis is a Fuchsia casualty, and it won't be the last. Google cannot afford to innovate with hardware until they are done replacing the open-source kernel in Android. Once that's done, and OEMs are accustomed to writing Fuchsia drivers instead, they can use increased leverage over manufacturers to drive hardware innovations in directions they want.
- monkmartinez 10y agoCan you please elaborate? I am not following your logic.
- karma_vaccum123 10y agoInteresting theory but Fuchsia seems years away (unless they have a non-public repo that is much further along)
- cpeterso 10y agoWhy are hardware innovations not possible with Android's Linux kernel? OEMs' concerns about the GPL?
- pjmlp 10y agoYes, the kernel is the only GPL component on the stack. Google just deprecated gcc and will only offer clang on future NDK versions. Native apps are so constrained in Android that they could replace Linux with something else and only OEMs writing drivers would notice. Fuchsia takes this further by not having any GPL component at all.
- fuck_google 10y agoGood old bait 'n' switch that Google is getting to become known for.
- clumsysmurf 10y agoI had high hopes for this, but seeing how fragmentation is harming Android when the phone is a single integrated device - seems unrealistic they would be able to get all these components to play well together among various OEMs.
- IBM 10y agoI've speculated for a long time that basically anything interesting Google says they're doing is essentially meant to be a jobs program to keep employees from leaving, PR for external stakeholders like investors, media, being attractive to potential employees, etc. They seem to have lots of formal ways to keep employees from leaving/close as well including investments off of Google's balance sheet (not GV or Google Capital) into ex-employee startups and just flat out paying people not to leave (which is the arrangement I'm guessing that Matt Cutts is under). It all seems very Microsoft of old. Can anyone at Google (or ex-employees) tell me if this is true?
- oconnor663 10y agoIs the evidence for this view, that they cancel a lot of interesting projects? I think a simpler explanation for that would be that trying lots of new things is just a good strategy, even if you know 90% of them will fail.
- flukus 10y agoTrying and failing is one thing. Trying, announcing, telling everyone it's the next big thing and then failing is quite another.
- bcook 10y agoIs it? If they intentionally failed, I would agree, but I have seen no proof of that. Many ventures fail, regardless of resources and best intentions.
- kyrra 10y agoCertain types of products need by-in from 3rd parties to make them work. I could see Ara being in this camp, so it's better to control the message about it, instead of some 3rd party leaking details. May also help to get those 3rd party companies to reach out to you.
- tacoman 10y agoLike Project Vault that was made public at IO in 2015. It looked very promising. From an outsider's perspective, it looks like Mudge left Google a month later, then the project died. I hope there's more to the story because what kind of organization has a product's success completely reliant on one person?
- perseusprime11 10y agoI never saw the potential of this project given how slim the phones are getting and how the hardware is literally attached to screen. The design and aesthetic would have to be compromised for these modular phones. The two places where this would have been useful are camera and battery but there is literally no innovation happening in these two departments so expect for the next 2-3 years, our batteries and camera specs will not significantly change due to technology limitations and size constraints.
- clintonb 10y ago> The two places where this would have been useful are camera and battery but there is literally no innovation happening in these two departments... From what I see in headlines the camera and battery are the two areas with the most innovation. Apple has a major ad campaign featuring photos shot on iPhones. Almost every new phone release mentions improved battery life. (Admittedly, these energy improvements may come more from decreased consumption than improved storage.) I see most marketing discussing the following features: 1. Camera 2. Battery life 3. Screen size/resolution This makes sense given that there aren't many other areas to radically innovate. Someone's already tried adding decent speakers, a kickstand, and various exclusive apps.
- perseusprime11 10y agoUnfortunately I don't see them. Nokia Windows phones were far more advsncedin terms of cameras than current iPhones or Samsung galaxy s7s. Anand tech said as much about this in their reviews. I don't see any improvement in my battery life from iPhone 5S to iPhone 6S. Do others see any improvement?
- perseusprime11 10y agoI never saw the potential of this project given how slim the phones are getting and how the hardware is literally attached to screen. The design and aesthetic would have to be compromised for these modular phones. The two places where this would have been useful are camera and battery but there is literally no innovation happening in these two departments so expect for the next 2-3 years, our batteries and camera specs will not significantly change due to technology limitations and size constraints.
- ori_b 10y agoI'm not surprised. I can't think of any way for it to actually be better for day to day use than a monolithic smartphone. My biggest surprise is that it was still chugging along until now.
- antoniuschan99 10y agoHave they released anything? Or was the lg g4 the closest thing to a modular smartphone?
- beambot 10y agoThere are too many tangible benefits to close integration between CPU, screen, battery, and antennas -- the latter of which is probably the most difficult to modularize. A much better tactic would've been 1-2 expansion ports for specialized hardware modules -- everything from credit card readers (a la Square), medical sensors, portable oscilloscope, etc. A standardized peripheral interface for hardware expansion slots across all phone variants could've really enabled a whole bunch of new applications (and industries). I'm sad to see it abandoned entirely. (I wonder if there weren't some strong personalities that kept the "100% modular or bust" mentality?)
- poizan42 10y agoYou mean, like, USB OTG that basically every smartphone has?
- beambot 10y agoYou are mistaking a few conductors for a well-designed peripheral. The surrounding mechanics and size matters a lot for mass-market peripherals... especially if the aim is to seamlessly integrate them (semi-permanently) into any phone. This means things like size, volume, nearby mechanical connections, robustness, and industrial design. With OTG, you'd be plugging and unplugging all the time (every time the devices goes into your pocket) -or- building "cases" one a phone-by-phone basis. That's not a standard peripheral... that's a hack with a dongle. An Ara-esque expansion slot could've created a real standard.
- mjevans 10y agoUSB-C is the correct technical solution. A modest cable leading to the peripheral in question is likely an acceptable form factor, and far more robust than trying to make one standard for a thing to bolt on to.
- jimmies 10y agoGP post is correct, it is USB-OTG. USB-C is the connector and has nothing to do with how the port acts. You can have USB-OTG with MicroUSB.
- rch 10y agoSo a modular phone is a bad idea, but what about the spec? I could imagine widgets that connect to mountain bikes, toasters, and ski helmets; the phone is just enabling. > the company may work with partners to bring Project Ara’s technology to market ...vague, but maybe.
- erikb 10y agoNo Google! That is not acceptable! You can not always make people hope for years and then just drop it. When you start with marketing you take on some responsibility. You lost someone who believed in you.
- karma_vaccum123 10y agoWas anyone really hoping for this? It seemed pretty clear that this was a a technology exploration.
- erikb 10y agoDo you know Pokemon? Don't you think collectable phone parts would not be a great business model? Even if this only barely works I thought it could make a lot of money and therefore was quite sure that someone would build it.
- bmer 10y agoI think your naivete is as beautiful as the freshest spring rose. I wonder what this move has to do with what phone manufacturers are doing in general: hiding away components like the battery that were once open to the consumer, making it difficult to do anything but buy a new phone if the battery alone dies out. One can't get more anti-modular than that, and the Nexus 5X has the same deal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFbSpvSE-w&feature=youtu.be&t=74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFbSpvSE-w&feature=youtu.be...
- voltagex_ 10y agoI know what you're saying about the 5X, but it's not impossible to replace. >The battery isn't immediately user accessible but isn't too challenging, or too adhered, to replace. https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5X+Teardown/51318#s112139 https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5X+Teardown/51318#s112...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- karma_vaccum123 10y agoAs the Moto Z will likely confirm, no one is really interested in modular phones.
- ilaksh 10y agoModular smartphones or computers are still a great idea. They may have had trouble easily capitalizing at this time without interfering with other products.
- eva1984 10y agoI am not surprised either. It is more of a gimmicky idea, than a revolutionary moonshot one. It is somehow hard to picture where is the market and how to convince customers to buy it.
- electic 10y agoIt is 2016 and a lot of people are still not very good with computers, let alone mobile phone components. We live in Silicon Valley so it might be hard to understand this very simple fact. I invite everyone to go to an Apple store and just sit there and watch the scores of folks come in and have to be sat down and explained, slowly, about the simplest concepts for macOS or iOS. I have mad respect for Apple Geniuses. Now, imagine a phone that has all these components and imagine the overhead of supporting that. Now you might say it is for tech people..that market is not big enough to warrant the R&D and support. Right call Google.
- pcurve 10y agoios has gotten rather complex and big over the years. Just look at the Settings. About as bad as Android settings. I'm a computer guy and it's a struggle to find things.
- electic 10y agoSame here, but people have come in since the first iPhone to ask the simplest question to Apple Stores.
- cesnja 10y agoTry rewatching the original iPhone introduction by Jobs. You'll be surprised by how "primitive" it looks and how amazed was everybody in the audience.
- electic 10y agoYes, yet people still came into the Apple store with questions in 2007 regardless of how easy you thought it was. Just because it is easy for you doesn't make it easy for the other 80% of the population.
- digi_owl 10y agoYeah the first couple of iPhones were more like fancy featurephones than what Microsoft and Nokia was shipping under the smartphone moniker. But because it had this touchscreen thing going, it had to be a smartphone according to the MSM. Never mind that Apple for the longest time ran a bunch of ads that was basically instruction videos on how to reach things like maps.
- DropbearRob 10y agoI think its cool that they at least gave it a shot, but in the process it used up their stocks of unicorn blood.
- yladiz 10y agoThis doesn't surprise me. I feel like the concept is nice, but they have to do a kick-ass job as making sure everything goes together well and can't just randomly fail -- I would hate if my phone's data got corrupted because a piece of it randomly fell off my phone or accidentally spilling some water on it, which would not affect a normal phone but may seep into between a pair of component edges. But beyond that, and more importantly, it has to make economic sense. Would it have been cheaper than a random cheap phone, especially in the developing world?
- seanwilson 10y agoIt was an interesting idea but I could never see it working myself. It looked like a solution in search of a problem. So you're meant to buy a phone shell and separate components to plug into this, where you can upgrade different components over time? Ignoring technical issues, wouldn't the shell get out of date quickly as well as the components (with some components being incompatible with other shells and components)? It doesn't sound cost effective considering how cheap phones are getting and how often we are seeing physical hardware changes still (e.g. fingerprint readers, screen size, thinnest).
- mindcrime 10y ago> It was an interesting idea but I could never see it working myself. It looked like a solution in search of a problem. Modularity worked out pretty well for the PC. When you make things open, there's no way to imagine ahead of times the things people will come up with.
- mjevans 10y agoYeah, but how well did it work out for the laptop? More to the point, how well is it working out for /modern/ laptops. Look at the drive in that market.
- umanwizard 10y agoA key advantage of mobile phones is that while a PC is around 50 liters, an iPhone 6 is 0.06 liters; almost 1000 times smaller. You are relying on the assumption that the "modularity" is independent of the form factor; that if it worked in the PC, it can work in a mobile phone. Maybe the success of mobile phones is because of their lack of modularity, not in spite of it.
- mindcrime 10y agoMaybe the success of mobile phones is because of their lack of modularity, not in spite of it. It's possible. But all I'm saying is that, in terms of it being "a solution looking for a problem", there is a historical precedent showing that openness/modularity can have powerful benefits. It would be hard to say for sure if that can/would/will apply in the mobile space as well. But it's not something, IMO, one should write off out-of-hand.
- wibr 10y agoI always thought that Ara might be a useful platform not so much for smartphones but for all those hand-held custom devices, you could plug in a credit card reader, laser, special cameras, voltmeter or whatever you need.
- tudorw 10y agoI always thought they take it a certain distance to maintain cred, then ditch it as the last thing they want is 3rd parties hooking stuff up to their things.
- Retra 10y agoBut next to nobody needs those things.
- Nullabillity 10y agoBut just about everyone has some such need, as well as components they couldn't give less of a shit about (the camera comes to mind, for me). The SoC is the expensive part that would need the economies of scale, but sadly there don't seem to be that many options in that space anyway.
- ankurdhama 10y agoIts all about money -> Do incremental "innovation" but make people pay for the whole thing again and again each and every year.
- umanwizard 10y agoYou know, you're not forced to buy a new phone, if you think your old one does the job just as well.
- Retra 10y agoMy old phone was perfect, but my provider killed it by making it download trash until it was unusable.
- optforfon 10y agoIf it came out tomorrow it'd be 10 years too late. Cellphones seem to have hit a plateau. All the parts are now good enough in a cheap phone that no one really needs this. I got a $150 aluminum phone with a huge battery, nice enough camera, fingerprint scanner, 3GBs of RAM, expandable storage, etc. etc. ... I don't feel like I need expansion options. What can the higher-specs really offer now a days? Samsung has the right idea, maybe we'll need better phones for VR. Or maybe built in picoprojectors will be a game changer. But for that you'll need a whole new phone - not just a module snaps on.
- cubano 10y agoWe need phones that are basically indestructible and last 3 full days on one charge.
- ahoka 10y agoDo you really think so? I have an impression that the market is kinda OK with short battery life. Otherwise there would be a trend in this way. Maybe after other specs reach their practical limits?
- PacketPaul 10y agoI hate the battery life of my iPhone 6. Every time I see how skinny it is I wonder why they could not have just added a bit of space for a larger battery.
- flukus 10y agoHas anyone released a decent phone with a long battery life? You can't tell if the market wants something if it's not on offer.
- ebalit 10y agoI just bought the Xiaomi Redmi 3 [1] with 4100mAh. The battery life is excellent. 2 to 3 days of battery is a comfort I missed from the "dumbphone era". 1: http://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-xiaomi-redmi-3s-3gb-32-gb http://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-xiaomi-redmi-3s-3gb-3...
- pronik 10y agoMeanwhile elsewhere: Fairphone 2 is available, is modular and user-repairable (iFixit: 10/10: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Fairphone+2+Teardown/52523 https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Fairphone+2+Teardown/52523). Ara looked cooler, but I guess I should cease any high hopes for Google innovation or market disruption. Which is sad, but probably the way things go in this world.
- mintplant 10y agoIt's also still stuck on Android Lollipop, unfortunately. Otherwise it looks really, really cool.
- voltagex_ 10y agoPretty much forever - drivers/BSPs won't be released any more for the Snapdragon 801. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/why-isnt-your-old-phone-getting-nougat-theres-blame-enough-to-go-around/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/why-isnt-your-old-pho...
- pronik 10y agoWhich only means it will be stuck on Marshmallow, not Lollipop -- until Fairphone releases a core module with another chipset on it (https://shop.fairphone.com/spareparts/coremodulefp2.html https://shop.fairphone.com/spareparts/coremodulefp2.html). At least that is the promise. Might even use something from Mediatek which will probably drive the price down.
- voltagex_ 10y agoI hope they do go for a cheaper SoC - that core module is more expensive than the entire phone that's in my pocket alone. I get that the price reflects ethically sourced materials, but they're gonna have to do something about the price. I wonder how they'll handle software and retaining data through a cross-platform upgrade - a build for Android for the msm8xxx series won't run on a Mediatek SoC.
- Animats 10y agoThat makes sense. All those connector pins and latches were inherently going to be troublesome and fragile. There's a market for various instruments one could attach to a phone, but it's not a mass market. You can get USB devices which give you a spectrum analyzer or an OBD-II connector, and there are apps to drive them. They're not something you get at phone stores.
- xenadu02 10y agoAnyone paying the slightest bit of attention knew this was the ultimate result on the very day they announced it. To make something modular you need to wrap each piece in its own case, add bulky connectors, etc. Both weight and volume are at an extreme premium in mobile devices. All that metal/plastic going in to making the pieces modular is stealing volume and weight from the battery. The only realistic way to make the power envelope is to use an SoC, which means the CPU, GPU, and RAM must all be in the same module. That doesn't leave a lot worth upgrading... maybe just the radio module. Jumping up in screen resolution would mean replacing the SoC to get a better GPU too. Modularity worked in desktop PCs because they have gobs of space and an AC power connection.
- peterjlee 10y agoFirst thing that came into mind when I heard about project Ara was that, laptops aren't modular because the increased size and weight will out weigh the benefits. Seemed like the same situation applies to smartphones, only worse.
- colechristensen 10y agoSome people are obsessed with weight/thickness in mobile devices, but not as many as the manufacturers think there are. "modular" really comes down to "repairable" which means extra engineering would have to go in to the fact that you couldn't just glue most pieces together. It _would_ add a little size/mass overhead, but it wouldn't have to add a lot. It would just cut in to bottom lines to build and maintain a consistent form factor. Allowing people to replace parts means they'll be buying fewer new units. My last two laptop purchases were definitely due to a hypothetically fixable problem in an unrepairable form factor.
- lewisl9029 10y agoI also wouldn't mind slightly thicker phones, but not necessarily for modularity. I just want to see phones that can be dropped flat on their faces on a concrete sidewalk and still remain in usable condition (i.e. no shattered screen). Making the screen completely modular would be one way to achieve this, since you can just replace the screen with a new one if the old one breaks in a drop. But it can be achieved much more easily and cheaply by simply slightly recessing the screen (or by slightly raising everything around the screen) so the glass never has to make direct contact with concrete in the event of a drop. This is how bumper cases work, and my $3 bumper case has saved my $400 phone enough times that I'd never use a new phone without one. That said, I really wish this kind of resilience was built into the phone itself, so I'd never have to have to cover up the nice design and great feeling materials on my phone with a cheap, bulky, hideous case.
- source99 10y agoWhenever I saw articles about this my first thought was always that it didn't make any sense. 1. Why do consumers need to decide what goes in their phone. Are my needs really different that someone else's? 2. Building hardware is hard. Building consumer hardware is really harder. Making it modular is just batshit crazy. I never once thought this would see the light of day.
- um_ya 10y agoThe difference is that software has practically no licensing or patent issues, while hardware is a minefield of costs.
- cm2187 10y agoI guess it could be useful to have something modular for more professional usage. Like adding a fast barcode reader, a chip & pin reader, or a thermal camera, or something to remote control a device. As a mainstream device for my mom, yes I agree.
- dingaling 10y ago> Are my needs really different that someone else's? Absolutely. I'm looking for an IP68-certified phone with a 3" 400 PPI polycarbonate screen and without a camera. Such a thing doesn't exist, but Ara gave me a vague hope that one day I might be able to obtain a phone that fits my needs instead of those of a manufacturer.
- hirsin 10y agoThis should have been an enterprise play. Delta needs 5,000 devices with a built in credit card reader. Macy's needs 25,000 devices with a built in barcode scanner. Delta doesn't need a massive battery life, Kohls needs minimum 8 hours. GM needs 175,000 phones with the barcode reader, a camera, and a rubberized body for their production lines. The phones don't have to be modular to the consumer - Google just needs to be able to snap a couple thousand together before shipment. Buy your devices at the same place you buy your software support. It's now just one contract, and the connection between the software and hardware means you have a single point of failure (if the phone borks, call Google) instead of 2. That it didn't happen could point to Google's enterprise game not being strong enough or the hardware not working out. Or maybe enterprise doesn't net them enough money compared to focusing on consumers.
- crbelaus 10y agoIt may shound harsh, but why should I want a modular Android phone? To update my hardware over the years to come while still running the same Android version without receiving updates. Google, your Android updating system is fucked up. Fix it first, and then we can talk about exending the life of hardware.
- clintonb 10y agoLimited updates are more an issue with the carriers than Google.
- voltagex_ 10y agoI don't think so. I'm still on the May 2016 security patch on a 2015 Moto X Style. No carrier involved - it's an unlocked LTE phone. Updating the existing phones doesn't make Lenovo any money so I doubt it will happen.
- pjmlp 10y agoThat is an excuse. Google just needs to make it part of the contract of using Android or access to the Play Store. No updates, no access.
- apatters 10y agoIt's really sad to think about how far we've fallen in terms of hardware customizability since the desktop PC era. It was once a given that you could build your own device from scratch and change out any part you wanted to. You could keep systems usable for 10+ years this way and we got a generation of hardware hackers and enthusiasts who went on to make cool things. Now our corporate overlord announces a way to let you replace a few basic components like your camera and battery and when they later cancel it the dominant reaction is "no big surprise there." Replace the magic candy bar in your pocket every 2 years, don't look inside, don't think about how it works, just embrace your new role in the modern tech industry as part of the top 1%'s recurring revenue strategy. The big money won, consumers lost, hackers lost. Sure it's business and you can never expect corporations to be altruistic, they have a profit motive. But that's never meant that you should give an anti-consumer attitude a free pass either. Every year that goes by now drives me deeper into the open source camp and Stallman's welcoming embrace.
- Dobbs 10y agoI'm not sure what you are talking about. The consumers won, hackers lost. My mother (or father if he wasn't an engineer himself) doesn't care about replacing the camera, how much ram it has or replacing the battery. She wants it to work. She wants it to have an efficient battery. And when it breaks she wants to take it to the store and have them fix it or replace it. This is what Apple provides. By removing connectors between replaceable parts they are able to reduce the size and increase battery size. So on so forth. Hackers lose the ability to swap out parts and customize it to their liking but your average citizen has no clue how to replace a DIMM stick and doesn't want to care. They don't care about managing files on their phone or any of that. They want the phone to be safe from malware, they want the device to work and to be easy to use. They have chosen to specialize in something else. To understand fashion, chemistry, politics, something. Their brain power is spent on something other than how computers work. And that is ok. Our job as technologists is to empower them in that. To allow them to achieve more in their love without getting in their way by managing device drivers.
- apatters 10y agoYou're reducing the entire market to fools and nerds. There's plenty of room for people in between. You didn't have to be an engineer to add more RAM to your system, you just had to be the geeky kid down the street who wasn't afraid to open up the box. Or you can at least create something open enough that a third party can service the engine, install an aftermarket exhaust upgrade, whatever. We've been making things that could be hacked since the beginning of time and the current crop of mobile device manufacturers is against it.
- Uhhrrr 10y agoI hope some of this reappears eventually as a scheme for a modular tiny desktop computer.
- ngold 10y agoSpeaking off the cuff here. I think google wants ideas that might work then put a team on them. Close it down and aquire a company that makes it successful.
- source99 10y agoCan anyone name other modular products in high volume production.
- rado 10y agoSurprise.
- justinlardinois 10y agoI was excited about this, but after going dark for nearly a year and then resurfacing with a model that had most of the important components integrated onto the board, the writing was on the wall. It's a cool concept, but I don't think current technology would allow this to work in a reasonable way.
- xg15 10y ago> “This was a science experiment that failed, and they are moving on,” he said. Semi-seriously, but I'd like to know where exactly they are moving on now.
- rajeshp1986 10y agoThis project was longed to die. It should have died 3 years back. I wonder why the project team didn't understand or realize the dynamics of smartphone market. The equation is simple, there is no market for phone with interchangeable components. period. Chinese companies are manufacturing dead cheap smartphones. Indian market is flooded with cheap phone options. An average life cycle of android phone is now less than 2 years. People throw their old phone and buy a new one because new phones are cheap and easy to buy plus they get an overall upgrade. Maybe they didn't realize because the project was carried out in US where there is not much competition from phone manufacturers and Apple takes away major share of the market. This interchangeable components idea is much like Assembled computers back in early 2000s. Most people went for assembled computers because it was easy to upgrade single components/pieces. They should have realized that people don't do that with computers these days either. Only may be few enthusiasts and geeks, but definitely not by a common man. One more project dies at Google...
- cloudjacker 10y agoFinally I can say this was a stupid idea and by stupid, I meant economically infeasible, no product market fit words we associate with waste of time, in this sector
- Scirra_Tom 10y agoIsn't software the best interchangeable parts for a phone? Modular add-ons were doomed to fail from the go and no idea why they got any traction.
- barnacs 10y agoAt least this time they killed the product _before_ rolling it out to users. Google is improving every day!
- jacquesm 10y agoFinally. The first modular phone prototype I saw in Logitech HQ in 1999 or so was shelved for the exact same reasons. I'm expecting a similar announcement about project Makani.
- wslh 10y agoWhat is the strong reason behind nodularization if we can have almost every component in place for cheap?
- ungzd 10y agoYou can add new camera or bluetooth controller but you can't (sanely) update firmware to latest Android version. Great. (I mean sanely if it was like installing Windows or Linux and not specific build for single phone model made from hacks and insane backmerges)
- funkyy 10y agoI am quite surprised, that instead of allowing users to change modules (and thus are forced to build it up with casing and connectors) they didn't release certification on doing it and let people drop their phones to the mobile service points all over the world for free or small fee like $1 (including vacuuming insides to add extra value). Such shops would make money on selling modules. Modules could be less protected and delivered without the casing. Changing modules would take ~1-2minutes since the store clerk would be trained to do it and use 2-3 universal tools to open the phone and change the modules. Those 2-3 tools would be also available to buy, so owners could change the modules themselves. But since it would be quite advanced - same as with changing PC parts - it would void the guarantee for whole phone.
- jordache 10y agoThis is my attitude regarding Red camera's lauded modularity. Ok so you can keep your handle and grip, and the little viewfinder. The sum of Those useless pieces doesn't mean you've "upgraded" your camera
- jasonkostempski 10y agoPhones are at the point desktops hit about 10 years ago, they're good enough to use for general purpose until the end of time. Everything people typically want can be done instantaneously, cameras are way better than anyone really cared about and screens are perfectly clear. The only thing stopping us from having a phone for life is forced obsolescence. All we need back is removable batteries and storage.
- johngalt 10y agoOf course. Something like that would be a compatibility and testing nightmare. Users aren't going to be content dealing with PC style driver issues with a mobile device. And to gain what? The ability to upgrade or customize a phone? Why? Do your mobile device needs change that often? A better idea is to attack the areas where apple and samsung are retreating. Replaceable batteries, memory cards, peripheral connections etc...
- wnevets 10y agoEveryone always knew this was never reach the mainstream consumer but I would've liked to seen something released.
- YZF 10y agoThere was an Israeli startup that tried to do this ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modu ) and apparently Google acquired some of that IP. I wonder if this effort is related.
- stevenwiles 10y agoEver since the idea of a modular phone was first introduced "Phonebloks, or whatever it was" I have known for a fact that it was a fundamentally flawed concept and would never see the light of day, despite the enormous hype and support it received. Is this proof that I am more intelligent than everyone who believed in this idea? I think so?
- OnlineCourage 10y ago> Is this proof that I am more intelligent than everyone who believed in this idea? No.