Google: Is Project Ara, the modular smartphone concept, dead?

Just a few months ago during Google's developer conference Google I/O the software and hardware company mentioned that modular phone concept Project Ara was alive and well and developers could look forward to this fall for an update and a possible shipping date next year. Fall is coming soon but there won't be any modular phones after all, according to internal sources at Google who mentioned to Reuters that Google has stopped the project recently in an effort to streamline its hardware business.

The plans already changed substantially in May this year compared to the original idea to create the first truly modular smartphone. This year's plans were already much less ambitious, only certain parts were still interchangeable, the main components however, processor, storage and display for instance, were changed to a fixed skeleton instead. Even though the exact reasons behind the decision to stop the project are unkown, Bob O`Donnell, analyst at TECHnalasys Research told Reuters, that he is not surprised about Google's decision at all. The modular parts are costly to produce and bulky, making them difficult to bring to market. “This was a science experiment that failed, and they are moving on,” he said. Google declined to comment on this matter. 

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