While Lenovo has bought Motorola from Google for $2.95 billion, the search engine giant has a surprise in store for its fans - it may soon release modular phones that will cost only $50.
Google, as it turns out, will keep the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) unit of Motorola. ATAP is like the Google X and is responsible for moonshot ideas such as Project Ara.
Project Ara is the initiative that plans to reinvent smartphone components so these pieces can be assembled like Lego bricks, giving consumers limitless possibilities in terms of the setup of their handsets.
On Wednesday, after a long silence, Google announced something that will excite technophiles awaiting news about its modular phone concept.
"We're excited to announce the first Ara Developers' Conference, to be held April 15-16, 2014. The Developers' Conference will be held online, with a live webstream and interactive Q&A capability. A limited number of participants will be able to attend in person at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California," Google ATAP's project head Paul Eremenko wrote. "The first of these will focus on the alpha release of the Ara Module Developers' Kit (MDK). The MDK, which we expect to release online in early April, is a free and open platform specification and reference implementation that contains everything you need to develop an Ara module."
ATAP's goal is to make the modular phone affordable enough for billions of people in developing countries who still struggle to connect to the Internet. In order to do this, they plan to have a device that can be sold for just $50. This will not actually give the consumer a cellular connection but just a Wi-Fi device that can eventually evolve using new modules as their budgets permit.
"ATAP is finishing up work on a functioning prototype, which will be ready within weeks, with a version ready for commercial release in the first quarter of 2015," Eremenko told TIIME.
Eremenko disclosed that only three people are working on Project Ara and they were given two years to produce something tangible.
"Generally, time is not your friend. Innovation under time pressure is generally higher-quality innovation," said Eremenko. However, he shared that there are also companies, universities, and individuals outside of the organization that contribute to the project.
ATAP is also working with 3D printing equipment manufacturer 3D Systems that is trying to come up with a hardware that can print out enclosures for the modular phone.
Eremenko told TIME that so far they are looking to produce mini phones, a medium, more of mainstream variant, and a jumbo that can be compared to what people know today as phablets. Assembling the phone will be like pushing something into expansion slots of desktop computers. For example, one might go for an extra battery module in place of a mobile camera module if the user needs more juice. He also said that hot-swapping can be done and will not cause any glitch. This means that one does not need to turn off the phone in order to swap parts.
For now, one can only drool to get hold of this modular phone but for sure, the imagination can go pretty wild when it comes to personalizing your very own Project Ara gadget.
