Modular smartphone “Project Ara”: new details from Google

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

So, this device will support the "hot" change of modules, so turning off the phone to replace a separate item will not be necessary . True, if such a module is a processor or display, then it will still have to be disabled, but this is rather an exception to the rule.
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In addition, the operating system of the new smartphone has become known - the Android L. will be used as the OS.

Quanta, Toshiba, Rockchip, Foxconn and some other companies have been selected as partner companies that will produce individual parts of the smartphone. 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. The thickness of the modules will be standard, 4 mm, the thickness of the device will be 9.7 mm. Third-party developers will be able to create their own modules for the phone, selling their products 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’s site.

It is also known that the phone will be presented in three models, which differ in the size of the platform : small, medium and large. Of course, the larger the platform, the more modules can be placed on it, and the more functional the Project Ara phone will be. So, a small model is an analog of a budget smartphone, a large one is an analog of a flagship. About how much the modules will cost, while, unfortunately, is not reported.





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