Motorola’s hatched a new plan to take on the likes of Apple and Samsung in the smartphone game: let you build your own. Want to add your own screen, own camera, own processor, piece by piece? Soon, you might just be able to thanks to Project Ara.
Motorola today revealed that its Advanced Technology and Projects group has been hard at work on a crazy new concept: a modular smartphone, where separate units piece together to create your own personal, customisable handset.
An endoskeleton holds all the pieces together, but according to the Google-owned mobile company, what goes into each module is up to you, from a new screen to a keyboard, battery or a heart rate monitor.
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If it sounds a lot like another recent modular phone campaign, it’s no coincidence. Motorola employees recently met with Dave Hakkens, the creator of the PhoneBloks concept, to work on the project, and plan to engage with the community that’s formed around it to draw on their ideas and flesh it out in the open.
Intrigued? The company will be inviting developers to begin work on modules in a few months, and release a developer kit (MDK) this winter. You can see how it might look in the video below – would you piece together your very own phone like this?
