Modular smartphone "Project Ara": new details from Google



    A working prototype of the device will be demonstrated at a Google conference in December this year. And the device will go on sale in 2015, at the very beginning, as planned. The other day, Project Ara project manager Paul Eremenko told interesting details about a modular smartphone.

    So, this device will support a “hot” change of modules, so there will be no need to turn off the phone to replace a single element . True, if such a module is a processor or display, then you still have to disconnect, but this is, rather, an exception to the rule.

    In addition, the operating system of the new smartphone became known - Android L will be used as the OS.

    As partner companies that will produce individual parts of the smartphone, Quanta, Toshiba, Rockchip, Foxconn and some other companies are selected. Rockchip will produce processors.

    Earlier it was reported that the phone will be sold as a separate platform, for $ 50 (with battery and WiFi module), the rest of the modules will need to be purchased. In this case, the thickness of the modules will be standard, 4 mm, the thickness of the device case will be 9.7 mm. Third-party developers will be able to create their own modules for the phone, selling their development through a special catalog (most likely, based on Google Play). For development, you must use the MDK (Module Developers Kit) from Google. Now you can download MDK 0.11 from the project website.

    It’s also known that the phone will be represented by three models,which differ in the size of the platform : small, medium and large. Of course, the larger the platform, the more modules you can place on it, and the more functional the Project Ara phone will be. So, a small model is an analogue of a budget smartphone, a large one is an analogue of a flagship. Unfortunately, so far, unfortunately, it has not been announced how much the modules will cost.





    We hope that soon all the necessary details will be announced on the official website of the project .

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