Ara is going to be the first ever phone that Google is making itself (it has already made laptops and a tablet, among other things). And even though what I saw last week was just a prototype, it was working well enough that I believe Google can fulfill its promise to release a consumer product next year. Yes, we’ve seen Google kill off hardware before, but this is a high-profile launch from a newly independent division. It’s the first truly big swing from Google’s new hardware group under Rick Osterloh, and to back off now would be a colossal embarrassment.
Given all that, really the only questions that matter are simple: Is Google really making a phone? Will this plan to make it modular really work this time? Is this more than just an experiment?
Coming out of the meeting, had I shaken a Magic 8 ball, it would have said, “Signs point to yes.”
I want this to succeed – finally something new, beyond the square slab – but this is so radical in the smartphone (or feature phone and PDA before that) market that I honestly just don’t know if it’ll work out.
In any case, people are taking sides, but a this point in time, I think either option – “this will be a massive success” or “this is nonsense” – is equally shortsighted, and especially the latter not at all unlike this infamous quote.
I think the ‘new Ara’ is basically a rectangular phone and, as such, it really doesn’t offer the level of innovation that the ‘old Ara’ promised.
Sure, I can still add and remove modules, but given that key facets of the platform – screen, cpu, and ram – are part of the frame it no longer has the versatility it originally promised.
I can’t imagine that just ‘a phone with accessory modules’ is really going to make that much of an impact. I am still hopeful that at some point either Google or a third party will offer alternative frames but that’s nothing more then a wish at this point.
Yeah, that. You can upgrade the camera, battery and storage. So that’s something. Or you can switch to a newer frame with better specs, taking the camera, battery, storage with you. I think the appeal will be close to that of the ubuntu phone, or motorola’s lapdock. Great idea, that a lot of people review and give 8/10 , highlighting some good some bad, and an open question on the market.
At least this is a better implementation and idea of jolla’s other half bs. As they don’t have to build a phone, operating system and prop up a third party hard ware and software development on a start up budget .
Is it really a better implementation, though? So far, it literally seems to be the same as the Other Half idea, and far less exciting than the initial Ara vaporware presentations.
In fact, the “core”, non-replaceable and non-upgradeable module already contains more fixed hardware than the Jolla did. You could at least replace the ‘fixed’ battery on the Jolla.
Project Ara seems much like building your own PC. It appeals strongly to a small, in fact very small, sub-set of users but doesn’t appeal to the mass of consumers. In fact I suspect that the people attracted to building their own PC will mostly be the same people attracted to a modular phone.
I could be wrong and there could mass appeal but I cant see it yet.
IMHO it is nothing like building a PC. Ara doesn’t allow you to change anything useful – just the consumer oriented gimmicks like cameras, speakers and batteries.
Same goes for PC market. You can’t change the chipsets, just attach components that have their specific purpose.
Somehow people are scared of this even if we’ve learned how to build blocks from kindergarten. It mostly has to do with the fear of breaking something you paid many bucks for and not receiving any support from the vendor if something goes wrong.
In theory is great but in the real world it will just scare off people from Android platform.
They already think that it is too complex for their needs.
Maybe we can get GPIO?
Modularity, but only as long as its Google-sanctioned. Lovely.
Well, at the beginning We had Mosaic, and Mosaic was pretty, and Mosaic was all…
Now that the frame contains all the regular functionality of a normal phone and is just as thick already, the modules that can be attached on the back are just that: modules humped on the back.
If you look inside a decent phone you will find out that it is a small motherboard, a thin screen, some space for wires and connectors…and a huge part of it is battery. You can be sure that the frame will have very mediocre batterylife and that you are going to need to put extra battery modules on it to get a similar batterylife.
The original idea was to make everything modular and to sell a basic phone for 50 dollar that would last 5 years. That whole concept has gone out of the window and the only reason we are still hearing about this is because it is made by Google, not any random KickStarter.
They are now trying to find a market between makers (Arduino/RaspberryPi) and budget phones that will receive modules …. there is surely a market for that, but not a market that Google would normally target with a product that they keep alive for more than a year.
No talk of a physical keyboard module…
This thing is a solution for a problem nobody has. And I don’t even find it appealing. What’s the point, why would I want to change little parts from my phone?
Guys, have you seen what a $100 phone can do today? After 2 or 3 years of use, people move on and buys another phone, because they are cheap and powerful.
The future is cheap computing, devices, computers and phones you can buy for a few dollars and treat carelessly. This thing is swimming against the tide.
im getting excited
http://bgselalu.com“>agen