Google's Project Ara has bad news to anticipating fans out there. The innovative modular phone has been suspended.
Just a few days ago, the official site of Project Ara has made an update on its progress claiming that it has gone through several testing stages with no hint of cancellation whatsoever. Thus, the announcement of it being shelved came as a big shocker.
Project Ara Recap
Project Ara is a modular smartphone designed to give users flexibility to customize the device as they deem fit. After a series of testing stages, Google's original plan to modularize everything seems to take a slight turn and ended up having limitations as to which parts will be detachable. The company even laid out a timeline for the availability of the modular smartphone slated in 2017. So why the sudden cancellation?
The Scrapped Project
Reuters reported that axing Project Ara is the first step in a campaign to "unify" Google's hardware efforts which includes Chromebook laptops and Nexus Phones. It was believed that Project Ara no longer fits into Google's hardware strategy.
In a recent interview with Dan Makoski, former Head of Design at Google ATAP and Founder of Project Ara, he expressed his dismay over the matter.
"It's disappointing to the teams who have worked so hard to make it real, disheartening to the developers hoping to bring their innovations to life, and frustrating to the fans across the world who were so eager to have Ara in their hands."
He also added that he is "personally saddened" of the said decision.
"I'm personally saddened at the lack of courage to take it across the finish line, but I know and respect Rick Osterloh." Makoski said. "He was one of the few executives who encouraged me when I first pitched the idea, and trust that he has good reasons to postpone."
Reports claim that former Motorola President Rick Osterloh has rejoined Google earlier this year and led the company's hardware division. It was said that Osterloh "streamlined" Google's hardware devices and Project Ara "did not make the cut."
Although it has been confirmed that Project Ara has been axed, there's still little chance that it'll see the light of day if Google licenses the technologies to a third party. But still, the idea might still be a challenge given that the interchangeable parts alone can be pricey.
