A few months ago, Phonebloks was the talk of the town, a way to customise your smartphone in modular part upgrades, instead of a new smartphone every two years once the contract runs out.
Motorola has surprisingly jumped onto this idea with Project Ara, breathing actual life into the concept of a modular device. When some questioned the Phonebloks concept, Motorola got to work thinking of all the ways the smartphone could work in replaceable modules.
In an announcement Motorola said the phone would be made from endoskeleton modules. The design of the smartphone seems to suggest Motorola will develop all the parts to fit the part sizes, but this will be an open hardware platform, pointing at the possibility for indie collaboration and a store front, similar to Phonebloks.
This is a big move by Motorola, a company that is still haemorrhaging money every quarter for Google. Making every part for the smartphone compatible with both Android and the board is going to be a hard task, but it fits Motorola’s new company ideals.
Google could back up this project with their Android expertise, making sure when Motorola finally gets around to making a Moto Maker tool with hardware installations it will always be compatible, even when the user goes to replace parts.
The Phonebloks project on Thunderclap is about to finish in a few hours, Motorola has said they will be working with the Phonebloks team and developing an open hardware community for the modular smartphone. In the future we may even see a modular tablet, PC and other electronic devices.
