Project Ara was too lofty, Google

Google today confirmed the end of Project Ara, its attempt to create a modular mobile phone. Was the result too bulky, or was it just a non-core-business clean-up exercise?

There is a need for modules. But not perhaps the ones that Project Ara envisaged. The consumer need is actually much, much simpler than what Ara is trying to solve. It's not technically modules, but spare parts.

We simply need to be able to replace our phone batteries when they run out of juice (or when they finally go kaput). We need to change screens when we crack them. We need to install more memory as Android and iOS as well as the apps that go on them add more and more features that suck up memory space (and battery life).

Remember the good old days of detachable batteries on mobile phones? Imagine not lugging around a power bank and a cable everywhere you go, but a small, spare, flat battery instead. 

Imagine not having to go to the phone service centre and wait for a few days whilst your kaput battery gets replaced. (If you go to the instantaneous but unauthorised repair shops, your warranty gets voided). Just replace the kaput battery with the spare one.

Imagine if drop your phone and your screen gets cracked, but its simple engineering to replace the cracked screen with a new one, without costing an arm and a leg.

Imagine when your phone slows down (from the numerous OS and updates) and all you have to do is to replace the previous 16GB memory "card" by slotting in a whopper 256GB one (well, whopper for now anyway).

Imagine being able to extend the life of the phone from the 18 months - 2 years currently, to 5-6 years. (And being able to tell your kids, sorry, you'll just have to use daddy's old but perfectly workable phone until you're earning your own money to buy yourself the latest one!).

Intriguingly, Google had envisioned the above features to be part of the scope of Ara, but reneged on it later by saying the developer version "would not allow to swap out the phone's processor, battery or display". But the intrigue is now moot as the project is cancelled.

These ain't revolutionary stuff, but they are consumer pain points. It's not beneficial to the mobile phone makers who want replacement cycles to compress, but it's beneficial to us consumers, and to our environment.

Over to you Lenovo and Moto Z.