‘Google stops with modular smartphone Project Ara’

As part of a project to streamline Google’s hardware portfolio, the modular smartphone project ‘Project Ara’ has come to an end. Two anonymous sources told Reuters that.

One of the sources says that there is a possibility that Google will make the technology available to other manufacturers, through a license agreement. The search giant itself would in any case no longer have plans for the release of Project Ara. Google has not yet responded to a request for information about the project, the news agency writes.

Earlier this year, it became clear at the I/O developer conference that the modular functionality of the ambitious Project Ara had already been reduced. However, a developer version would be released ‘in the fall’ of this year.

Initially, almost every part of the phone had to be exchangeable, but that had already been reduced to a frame with fixed elements that could not be exchanged: the CPU, the GPU, the screen, the battery, the antennas and the sensors. In fact, it had become an expandable phone to which people could add parts, such as a better audio module, an e-ink screen or extra sensors.

Google is reducing the number of hardware products it offers under the leadership of former Motorola president Rick Osterloh, including Chromebooks and Nexus phones. It is not yet clear whether this shows that, for example, the Nexus name will disappear completely for tablets and phones.