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Today kicks off day one of Google’s Project Ara Developer Conference. The conference is set to begin at 11:30 am Eastern Time. Tune in below. The conference is aimed at developers and Ara enthusiasts of all shapes and sizes. Google hopes to fuel innovation and generate excitement in this entirely new mobile space.
For those not aware, Project Ara is the codename for a Google led project that aims to bring about an open hardware platform for creating modular phones. The platform will include an endoskeleton along with modules for the owner’s choice of hardware, such as a display, keyboard, extra battery, camera, and more. Additionally, phone owners would be able to easily upgrade their phone by swapping out handset parts such as memory or processors. This type of innovation will provide longer product life-cycle and potentially bring about new kinds of hardware components for mobile devices, revolutionizing the smartphone industry.
I haven’t seen this yet, but would you have usb and headphone jacks in the individual modules or is it going to be part of the base shell?
“Uh Uh” I hate to be too critical, but damn, the uh’s are really distracting me from the presentation.
only been listening for a few minutes and he’s done it like 10 times already! Probably not a normal presenter and/or really nervous.
He does say uh, uh a lot. Either way, it’s still very informative.
So it seems like this could be the replacement for the Nexus device line once all the driver abstractions get made into the Android OS and some module developers have had some time with it. I’m still a little hesitant but this could be pretty big.
It’s a bit too early to tell. With that said, we could see the Nexus program evolve into this in years to come, after it’s handed off to mainline Google.
What would be your guesstimate for this to happen?
I’m not sure I understand how this could replace the Nexus program. To me, the draw of a Nexus device is 100% stock Android and the best, most affordable hardware you can get, while carrying Google’s stamp of approval.
That’s what this would be from my understanding, stock by default using an abstraction layer for the hardware, and google would be in control of the approval process for how modules operate. It would also be affordable after it starts gaining popularity.
To me, this is the coolest thing to happen to the mobile world since the birth of Android