Upon hearing of Motorola’s Project Ara, it's easy to lapse into thinking about all the reasons why
it'll be hard — almost impossible — to pull off: customers won't have incentive to buy new
phones, modules will be too expensive; the list goes on. And if you can think of 30 reasons not
to build such a thing, Motorola’s designers and engineers can probably come up with 300. But
against all odds, they're doing it.
The "why" of Project Ara is an inspiring vision of a more sustainable and democratic smartphone.
Motorola wants to lower barriers to entry for new companies and consumers alike while helping to
build an ecosystem of versatile devices that don’t get discarded as soon as any one component
breaks down. The same flexibility that you gain from having an interchangeable battery can be
magnified if everything from the display and cameras to the applications processor and
wireless radios is also user-upgradeable. By swimming upstream against the current of ever-
greater integration and consolidation, Motorola’s venture aims to produce "a phone worth keeping."
Those words come from Dave Hakkens, the creator of Phonebloks, a grassroots community
united by the desire to see modular phones become a reality. Having earned will.i.am’s
unequivocal approbation earlier this month, Phonebloks is today getting a much more
important boost from Motorola’s embrace of the concept. Hakkens envisions the practicalities of
building a modular phone as a mix of Etsy and a software app-store. Hardware developers will
offer up their wares and buyers will pick and choose the particular specs of their desired
phone. Moto’s underpinning the whole thing by developing the first prototype device, and later
providing the sweetly titled endos (short for "endoskeletons") upon which to mount your
various components. Those will be joined by the release of Module Developer’s Kits and prizes for
the most accomplished designs.
THE ROAD FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY
GOES VIA YOUTUBE AND REDDIT
Hakkens tells The Verge that his major contribution has been to galvanize an otherwise
dormant desire among smartphone users for longer-lasting, more flexible devices. His initial
concept video was picked up by Reddit and clocked up over a million views within its first 24
hours on YouTube. "The first idea was to gather 500 people," says the Dutchman, but that goal
was surpassed within moments. The concept’s viral popularity did more than just bring
phonebloks.com down. It afforded Hakkens the opportunity to talk to big companies about
collaborating on making Phonebloks a reality. He names Nokia, Intel, Qualcomm, Sennheiser, Jolla,
Ubuntu, Firefox, and ZTE among the parties expressing interest, but ultimately chose Motorola
for two key reasons.
Firstly, Moto has been making phones for over 40 years and, as Hakkens puts it, "They are very
good at technical development, I’m not." The other key attraction is Google’s "open way of
thinking," which will be evident in the way Motorola and the Phonebloks community work
together on Project Ara. The Phonebloks website and community, now numbering over 900,000
supporters, will serve as a gathering place where ideas can be shared and collaboration between
individuals organized. Hakkens describes it as a more structured form of an online forum — where
it’s not just a Wild West of random ideas, but good designs are voted on and then passed
along to the engineers at Motorola. Keeping this dialog going between the big company driving
the project and the people contributing to it will be Phonebloks’ key role going forward.
The openness of the entire project, both from Motorola and Phonebloks, is admirable. There’s
no reason, for example, why other companies who make a similarly compelling pitch can’t be
included, with Hakkens saying that "the more companies involved in the project the better." He
also points out that Motorola is taking an unprecedented step in letting the public in on this
project at such an early stage.
Typically, concept development is handled entirely behind closed doors — and Moto did have some modular handset designs brewing behind the scenes before partnering up with Phonebloks —
but it was the popularity of this campaign that convinced the company to open up its efforts.
Motorola is responsible for developing and standardizing the basic spec of the Phonebloks
platform. It’ll then make all the necessary information available online so that hardware
developers can pick it up and start building their own blocks and growing the ecosystem. Most
importantly for Hakkens, working with Motorola "so people can have an influence on the
development process is really unique." While undeniably energizing and stirring, the
Phonebloks vision still feels utopian. When asked about cost projections or how the module store
would operate, Hakkens describes those practicalities as "the next next step." "A nice next
step is to figure out," he says, "whether it is even possible, because no one’s ever really tried it
before."
The exact Phonebloks concept hasn’t been tried, that’s true, but modular handsets have an ignoble
history of sparking short bursts of interest before flaming out. The most recent such example was
the Modu , a tiny, no-frills phone that plugged into various jackets to perform higher-order functions. It suffered from exactly the issue that threatens Project Ara today — a misalignment between the cost of extra modules and accessories and the price buyers are willing to pay. Scott Bicheno of Strategy Analytics worries about performance and cost disadvantages relative to fully integrated smartphones and raises the specter of a complacent marketplace, "with the mass-market
likely to adopt an 'if it ain’t broke don’t fix it' view on messing around with components."
Still, these and other projects like Sony's QX lenses tap into a rich vein of unsated demand for
modularity among smartphone owners. We want user-replaceable batteries and screens and chips
because we tend to get attached to our devices. It’s emotionally easier to swap out a malfunctioning part than throw away the phone on which you composed your most heartfelt love
missives or best haiku. And, even more importantly, it’s a less wasteful way to keep
upgrading to the latest electronics.
"A NICE NEXT STEP IS TO FIGURE OUT
WHETHER IT IS EVEN POSSIBLE." Today, Phonebloks is making its big social splash
with a Thunderclap — an automated, synchronized message posted to supporters’ Twitter, Facebook and / or Tumblr feeds — and looking to expand the community that has already helped turn Dave Hakkens’ wishful concept into a real project from a major phone maker. With nearly a million people signed up for the Thunderclap, it’s estimated that
the social reach of that info blast will exceed 379 million. It’s a crowdfunding campaign where the
only contribution you’re required to make is that of your voice. Tell the world you want "a phone
worth keeping" and maybe, just maybe, the pieces will fit together to make it a reality.