Google’s Project Ara: the first 'Lego' phone toys around with grand ideas

You can freely change, swap and customize these little pieces that come in three sizes:

• 1x1 - 18mm x 18mm (0.7” x 0.7”)
• 2x1 - 40.5mm x 18mm (1.59” x 0.7”)
• 2x2 - 39.5mm x 41mm (1.55” x 1.61”)

These are the sizes of modules you can put on the back of the phone, while up front, modules always span to the whole width of the phone. There are some limitations - you cannot put 1x1 modules on the large endo, and you cannot put 2x2 modules on the medium endo, while 1x2 modules will be universally available on all three endo sizes. There are also some new possibilities - modules can extend over the body - for instance, a pulse detector module could extend over the length of the phone, while a performance-oriented camera module could be thicker than other modules.

Best of all, though, there are no ‘required’ components to build a phone with Ara. Sure, you need to have the basics, but you can have a phone without a camera, for instance, but with a few blocks for a humongous battery. Google actually plans on launching a ‘Grey Phone’ version of Ara with only the basics - a screen, low-end processor, battery and Wi-Fi modules, all running on Android, of course.

There’s enough excitement in such a configuration that could cost as low as $50, but what we’re really fascinated with are the possibilities that modules open up.

Experimental modules

Google itself showed a heart rate monitor sensor module that some people might want to get, but developers are already working on other captivating ideas.

The Institute for Health Metrics’ senior engineer Peter Sisk has said he is working on an Ara module to analyze a drop of blood, turning Ara essentially in a blood lab on a chip. Imagine how doctors could travel with just their Ara phone to monitor patients in the far-away corners of our planet. Such functionality will probably never make it in a mainstream phone, but it’s possible with Ara.

Satellite communications firm Globalstar’s design engineer, Eric Blanchard, has said his company could manufacture a module that you can use when you go out of coverage. That module would connect to Globalstar satellites and allow users to make calls and access the Internet, something that currently requires an expensive and separate satellite phone.

Actually, Google has just announced a challenge for the best module design with a $100,000 prize fund, looking for the most novel, functional, elegant, impactful, and commercially plausible ideas, so we expect a lot of new module ideas to come in the near future.

Project Ara might be a solution to our battery problem

Even a module as common as a battery suddenly becomes very interesting in Project Ara.

You can have more than one battery in the Project Ara, and each unit could have it’s own charging port. This means that you can charge two modules at the same time, which in turn should translate into much faster recharging of batteries.

Not only this, we have not yet clarified that each endo ships with a very tiny built-in battery. It lasts for just a very short while, but it’s enough time for you to swap battery modules without having to even power off your phone. What this means is that once you start running out of juice, you can quickly swap battery modules, and not worry about your phone dying on you.

Open marketplace for modules: think Google Play for hardware, not App Store

The biggest idea of Ara, however, is that it could change hardware innovation from the ground up. Google plans to launch it with a marketplace where you can buy modules, much like you buy apps right now. It will be an open marketplace, similar to the Google Play store open model of submission rather than Apple App Store’s policed catalog.

For users, such a market might mean that no longer would you have to wait for Samsung to release the S5 with the latest Snapdragon chip - you’d be able to get that chip straight from Qualcomm.

It’s a win-win too: hardware makers can enter the business directly rather than going through phone manufacturers to get sales. Companies that were previously limited to selling products on smaller-scale markets, could now get open access to the huge phone market. For instance, an acoustics company could start making components directly for smartphones, an option it does not have with the current model.

Modules are the hardware analogue to apps

Some say this could hurt carriers and phone makers, but it seems that first and foremost, this is a move to speed up the pace of innovation rather than hurt anybody.

Since modules all come with a removable shell on top of the circuitry, you can also easily customize that shell to your liking - with different colors, shapes, and so on. Third-party companies and accessory makers would certainly offer plentiful options, but with arrival of 3D printers, why not design and print one yourself?

Project Ara: release data and price

Project Ara has already gone halfway through its ambitious two-year mission.

There are still some concerns (most notably, about battery efficiency), and some rough edges to polish. However, under Google’s wing, Ara has skyrocketed from a mere concept to a very real prototype that is already in the hands of some developers.

Ara team leader and former DARPA engineer Paul Eremenko promised endos priced at just $15, and the most basic yet complete Grey Phone package should cost merely $50. At this price, it’s truly a phone for the 5 billion people not yet connected.

Ara, the first ‘Lego’ phone, is coming to market in January 2015. With Google’s promise to back it up and protect it from carriers and phone makers (who’d most definitely prefer to keep the status quo), this truly affordable device might just change our ideas of what a phone is in the future.