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Last week, we got the rather disappointing news that Google's Project Ara, the modular smartphone, would not have swappable display, CPU, or RAM modules, crippling the ‘upgradeable' selling point of the device. Now, Dave Hakkens, the designer behind the Phonebloks concept that inspired Ara has spoken out on the direction Ara is going, saying that Google can do better.
In a post made on his personal site, Hakkens' first noted that the recent Ara update has made the phone less modular, which is a big deal: “The Ara skeleton is a fully equipped phone with things like CPU, antennas, sensors, battery and display. The 6 little blocky modules on the back of the phone are just add-ons like better camera’s, speakers, scanners etc. Things to customise your phone, for fun. It means your phone still gets obsolete after a while. What if your screen breaks? Well you still need to replace the entire phone. And after a couple of years it gets slow and you need to replace your entire skeleton.”
The second thing that Hakkens is less impressed with is Google's approach to modules for Ara. Many had hoped for an ‘open standard' so anyone could create a module for the phone but Google has tight control over the whole ecosystem and could change the rules at any time:
“Everything happens under the umbrella of Google. They are in charge, they make the rules. They can decided to suddenly change the connectors, or design. Making all previous modules you have obsolete. It’s a powerful ecosystem which shouldn’t be in the hands of one organisation.A system like this makes other companies want to compete instead of collaborate. They will build their own modular phone, want to create their own ecosystem with their own sizes and connectors.”
He ended his post by noting that while Google is putting a great amount of effort into bringing the modular phone to life, being one of the most powerful companies in the world, it could probably afford to take a few more risks and do better.
KitGuru Says: Many were disappointed when Google revealed that the actual horsepower behind Ara would not be upgradeable over time, meaning you are still stuck buying a new phone when your current one starts getting slow and outdated. Perhaps Google should bring Hakkens on-board to help oversee a truly upgradeable smartphone.
Sounds like death before birth :-S
If u cant upgrade the parts that gets outdated.
They asking people to buy an expensive phone that still needs to be swapped out every two-three years. Or we can just buy a normal phone cheaper and all the addons would be the latest too…
From a design point-of-view these modular phones seem like an amazing idea. From an engineering point-of-view however… ¬_¬
“It’s a powerful ecosystem which shouldn’t be in the hands of one organisation”
Yeah, instead it should be in the hands of many organisations that end up making many different connection types leaving greater lack of compatibility than he is worried about… wait, what?
And yes, I am sure if they had done the extra modularity that he wanted that it would end up profitable for all companies involved despite the low demand.
Wow wtf google.. Waited years for this phone and you just killed it. Idiots.
No offense, but this project was never about what PC enthusiasts think a modular smartphone was ever going to be about, since the modularity was only about accessories. I think many of you just assume you can change the system specs, and waited years believing it, only to think Google screwed up? No, this was the plan from the get-go– but then the problem with aiming things at end-users is they can change their mind at will. So if this device doesn’t sell well, I figure PC enthusiasts will credit their own idea of what’s wrong as the reason it isn’t selling…as if average end-users give a darn about what we care about.
And surely this is monopolizing… as google worked with ‘phonebloks’ because they had the idea, and google had the money and power, and now google’s stepping all over the little guy (as so many big companies do) and changing it all……
I was watching Ara with great hopes, especially because you were going to be able to easily change and replace the display (great for clumsy people like me) – even their demo unit had a changeable display..
No offence but you obviously didn’t follow the project from day 1, when the original design spec -was- to support changing the SoC which would be in it’s own module. This project wasn’t about what PC enthusiasts want, it was about reducing the waste phones create and allowing users to upgrade only specific parts of the phone, not the entire unit.