Google's Project Ara: Reinventing the smartphone with building blocks
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Before I start my presentation, I have two questions.
What would happen if Lego start to make smartphones?
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And what would happen if Google start to make toy blocks?
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Apparently Lego has no intention to make phones. But recently Google has already made its move on blocks, which is Project Ara.
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So Let’s take a look at what Google brings us after its car and glasses.
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The core Idea of Project Ara is modular design: To divide a system into smaller parts like jigsaws puzzles.
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Actually, the idea of phoneblocks was first proposed in 2003. The concept here is to divide the phones into different functional parts and each part is attached to the main board. The team of Project Ara took advantage of it and initiated their work at Motorola.
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The project was retained when Google sold Moto to Lenovo. Since then, they continued transforming smartphones from a single, generally closed product into an ecosystem of mostly open, connected components.
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The idea is pretty simple. But think about the possibilities in it.
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If you break your iphone’s screen, you have to pay hundreds to get a replacement. But with a block phone, you just need to get a new screen and put them together like playing Lego. When a block phone is outdated, you don’t throw it away and buy a new one. You just replace the out-fashioned components and save the parts that still work well.