Yes, an extremely cool Project from Google called Project Ara was killed a long time ago. Indeed, many people have regretted this project of Google, especially those who love technology.
None of this project’s machines have ever reached users, but there were not too many “convincing” reasons to kill it at that time.
Is it possible that, if Project Ara is revived at the present time, perhaps this project will have a living land and will have the opportunity to stir up the smartphone market in the future? If you do not know what Project Ara is, please join me to learn about it in this article.
#first. What is Project Ara?
To describe simply, this is a project to produce a puzzle phone by Google, specifically Google will provide users with devices with removable modular hardware.
Here are a few pictures to make it easier for you to understand:
Project Ara introduction video:
If you’ve ever used the LG G5 or the Essential Phone 1, you’ll get a glimpse of this type of design.
This project was researched and developed by Motorola’s advanced technology team (when not sold to Lenovo), later Google retained this team, but also separated and operated independently.
Các bài viết liên quan:
First, this project is expected to give users a machine capable of replacing and upgrading as many parts of a smartphone as possible, which will help users save on periodic upgrade costs and reduce costs. technology waste reduction.
But due to the needs of users, along with the development of Chip, Ram, memory, .. technologies, this project has been modified into a machine with a main cluster that remains the same with the ability to disassemble modules and components. other.
Google had planned to continue developing this project in the fourth quarter of 2016 with the goal of only $ 50 for a machine chassis, and to commercialize in early 2017.
However, things did not go so smoothly. At the beginning of September 2016, they announced that they would bring this project to 3rd party developers, and they themselves announced that the project would be canceled the same day..
Follow me Translated from Wikipedia !
This project, if commercialized, will generate a large number of 3rd party manufacturers, and a large number of accessory manufacturers that are considered genuine.
Google’s original intention was that they wanted to create a standard for the modules and the main of the device. The frames will have 3 basic sizes as follows:
The data transfer rate of the modules will be up to 10Gbit/s
Except for the frame consisting of required components such as SoC, Ram, Rom, Antena, the screen, optional or replaceable components such as secondary screen, speakers, camera and battery will be in the form of modules.
In addition, you can equip your device with many other random and miscellaneous things such as heart rate sensors, laser lights, infrared sensors for cameras, razors, physical game keys, …. and so on and clouds.
Google has also considered posting open source code about the module development process for OEMs, no licensing fees required, similar to AOSP (Android’s open source code).
This could pave the way for an online platform for buying and selling modules censored by Google, similar to the Google Play Store.
The framework’s software will also censor the modules you install, or you can turn it off to use uncensored modules, like you install APK file for Android device so (apps not available on Google Play).
It’s like playing with lego. A lot of shipping companies imitate Lego, very cheap, lots of models, but the Lego train pieces will only be able to be assembled together or luckily installed with other clones, but it is difficult to fit a genuine Lego piece because it only needs 1 A few sizing errors will prevent them from fitting.
That’s why even hardware like modules need an open source code to follow, and a software to censor, of course all this is also for the benefit of the customer and the company’s reputation. ..
#2. Reason Project Ara declared dead?
Google has certainly found it difficult to “force” OEMs to create modular and interoperable hardware across multiple versions.
Take this for example:
In 2016, the basic technology of a frame will be the same as the phone of that time, including a physical fingerprint sensor, single front camera and dual rear camera, 4G support, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB charging, charging capacity just below 20W, and according to the initial goal set by Google, you will use it for 3 years.
So where do you get 5G, under-display fingerprint, dual and 3D front cameras, 108MP rear cameras and Super Zoom, 200W charging, USB Type C and more?
Next: Google was planning to transfer this project to a 3rd party but it seems that neither party is good enough to complete this project.
The Ara project itself is extremely potential, even decades ago, when the market was not really in shape and not yet saturated, Ara was a very different and very “crazy” project at that time.
Later, its potential decreased as the market entered the mold. At that time, Google needed a manufacturer with enough capacity and potential to participate in the project to be able to create a turning point for the market.
But this did not happen, and no 3rd party was able to continue to research or convince major firms to join.
Third: If successful, will Project Ara really save money and protect the environment?
By calculation, no!
In theory, if there are too many 3rd parties involved in the production of modules, the amount of materials they import to produce hardware is not much, which also means that the price on the product will be high.
And the fact that they upgrade their modules through each version also brings the need for users to upgrade. That is, the amount of waste technology generated is still very high!
And finally: The level of convenience is not that high.
High versatility is obvious, but a machine with several layers of baffles for each part, how thick and heavy do you think it will be? Not to mention repairing a product with many OEMs contributing to the hardware?
All the inadequacies were seen by Google, so they decided to leave this project instead of continuing to optimize, and so Ara fell into the past!
CTV: Nam Hoang – Blogchiasekienthuc.com
Edit by Kien Nguyen
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