Motorola Project Ara: Snap together a custom cellphone

Motorola's 'Ara' will give consumers many options.

|
Motorola
Project Ara from Motorola, would allow users to totally customized their smart phone from battery life to app processor.

The difference between Apple and Android smart phones has always been more philosophical than technical. Apple aims to create phones that satisfy everyone. Samsung, HTC, and the other Android manufacturers have a different approach. No one phone fits all, so you make everyone happy by offering options.

Motorola has taken this idea to its extreme. The subsidiary of Google (the company behind Android) announced a project that would let customers select every aspect of their phone – from the screen and camera to the processor and battery – and then slide the pieces together themselves.

Project Ara will "give you 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," says Motorola project leader Paul Eremenko in announcing the program.

Ara phones would be completely modular. Each component could snap into a uniform frame. If you're a photo buff, you might opt for the camera module with a high-end lens. If you need more battery life than you expected, pop out the old battery and insert a new one that offers more juice. Or, if Samsung designs a higher-resolution screen next year, you could swap out a competitor's display without needing to throw away the entire device.

Motorola's plan tackles several of the problems that have loomed over gadgetmakers. It addresses the alleged wastefulness of today's two-year phone cycle. Its flexibility in features and cost could appeal to the developing world, where the price of smart phones can be prohibitive. And since Ara would be open to any developer, independent companies could design one amazing component without needing to engineer every other aspect of a phone. This could bring the innovation of an app store to hardware.

However, Project Ara ignores why current smart phones are the way they are. Apple crams a lot of power into its devices by crafting components that tuck together perfectly. Any modular phone with similar specs would inherently be bulkier. Americans have largely abandoned home-built computers, opting instead for the convenience of pre-made systems. Plus, as technology improves and components get smaller, today's modular dimensions may not make sense by the time you're ready to upgrade.

Project Ara is still a prototype. Motorola plans to send out developer kits this winter. But Google has a great track record. While Apple and Android go toe-to-toe in the United States, Android makes up 79 percent of new smart phones worldwide, according to research firm IDC. The future may lie in flexibility.

For more on how technology intersects daily life, follow Chris on Twitter @venturenaut.

The original version of this article ran in the November 25 issue of the Christian Science Monitor magazine.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Motorola Project Ara: Snap together a custom cellphone
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Tech/2014/0102/Motorola-Project-Ara-Snap-together-a-custom-cellphone
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe