The success of Project Ara depends on Toshiba
araprototype.com
araprototype.com
Hopefully Project Ara can bring a PC-like open architecture to mobile devices, to unlock the combinatorial creativity of a multi-vendor interoperable ecosystem. This requires that the Google-controlled "Router" component will not exercise editorial policy or runtime tax on "Bridge" modules.
PC is open indeed, but for the love of me I can't remember the last time I've actually upgraded a PC. I usually buy a upper mid-range to lower high end PC (currently running Core I7 5820K, 980) but i actually very rare upgrade them. The ones I buy last me for the 2-3 years of which ever games i play at the time, when i can no longer play them at the graphical level i deem acceptable i buy a new one.
And this is because the upgradeability of most PC's is sort of a myth, if you buy a hardware which is all of the same range when you'll have to upgrade a component the rest will become a bottle neck.
And i don't see this being any different, the added cost of the router and the entire protocol simply writes off the benefits considering that an upgrade will require you to upgrade at least 3 major parts.
On top of that you run the risk of the "router" most likely be turned incompatible within a few years simply because the standard will evolve to allow for additional bandwidth, different power requirements, an improved form factor etc.
Take a look at PCI express for example from version 1 to 4 there were huge changes in bandwidth and power supply, and while some hardware kept backwards compatibility it was in most cases severely hindered by the bandwidth limitations. Put in a modern PCIE 3/4 graphics card in a PCI 1 or even 2 slot and you'll see the difference high end cards lose upto 75% of their performance, some wont work at all due to the power supply differences.
Do you really think that for some reason that protocol would be exempt of that?
We already have a combined creativity of a multi-vendor environment, open your phone it has components from a 100 vendors. There are memory vendors, SOC vendors, sensor vendors, radio vendors, screen cameras etc. You can have an LG phone with a top of the line Sony camera, and NVIDIA SOC and a Samsung memory in it, do you really need to add a plastic square that says Dr Dre to it?
Not to mention that at least now you have the ability to debug issues with fair ease, if the PC over the past 40 years have not managed to tackle cross vendor compatibility even at a hardware level (just check the accepted hardware list for your mother board for example) not to mention on the software level what makes you so sure that this all of a sudden will?
I would rather much see an easy way to connect peripheral discrete devices to my phone with ease for the extremely rare occasion i would (and atm i can't think of one) need it than to have to select different hardware for my phone hoping it will all work together than having 6 different vendors to get support and claim warranty from while hoping that at least 2 or 3 of my lovely blocks will be compatible with the next years model.
With all of those we still got issues, my 600$ creative sound card still doesn't work well with Windows 8, vendors still have to patch BIOS, firmware and micro-codes to sort out compatibility issues, and some hardware compatibility issues are not sorted at all.
No matter how well you plan things something will not work, today when a phone vendor designs a phone they can and do ensure that all of the hardware is compatible with each other and that the software works (some do it better than others). Do you really think that every single vendor will be able to test their plug with every other currently in existence?
And if they will can you even imagine the cost of such certification process? Motherboard vendors today barely test their boards with 1/3rd of the available memory modules, and on every motherboard manual you'll see warning of at least 5 that don't work at all.
All of them follow the exact standard set by JEDEC and still manage to mock it up. On the software level for each motherboard you can see 3-4 BIOS upgrades that patch in support for CPU's additional memory vendors, or increase system stability, this isn't something that i look forward to see on my phone.
The only reason why i still don't use an AIO PC is that i play games, and once Steam Boxes come down to reasonable price levels and not 600% branded PC markup I'll probably dump it for one.
For the rest of my uses, a laptop, tablet, or some other AIO device will work just fine, and judging by where the market is headed I'm probably not alone in this view.
No, I'd like the opposite. I want the ability to explicitly, physically remove pieces of the phone - like the GPS module, the camera module, and yes, the GSM/LTE module.
These are largely considered core components of the phone, but I want the ability to remove them and replace them as I see fit.
The additive functions of a modular phone are not the exciting part - it's the reductive functions that are interesting.
That said, I am approaching it the same way I do Lego Mindstorms, Raspberry Pi, and Arduino. However, I do not think Ara will have the education angle those do to reach volume.
I am not sure I see the real value outside of tinkerers. I plan to buy one but I do not expect to actually save money, electronics waste, or have better performance for the dollar.
On that note, I'm honestly not looking forward for project Ara at all. Seems to be quite a finicky concept and while i "loath" apple i do think that a purposely built device is much better over Lego type hardware. I don't mind some upgrade-ability but this to me seems like it will come at a much higher cost, bot in terms of overall cost and TCO having even more points of failure in a given device which will make it even less reliable and to have an overall shorter lifetime and for what exactly?
I really don't see a single feature that i would want to upgrade on a phone in the 12-18 months I'll use it, and when i will want to upgrade one it will most likely mean i will want to upgrade them all. If i wan't a better screen at that point I'll want a better SOC to drive it, more memory to store higher resolution content on it etc.
The only thing i see coming out of this is another "Beats" type scam with some silly audio parts and instragram branded cameras that will be sold for a huge markup. The only "benefit" we might get is that every "Ara" device will finally have a user serviceable battery, but considering that no matter how good their interconnect is the standard and protocol constraints will make it impossible to optimize every component like you could with a purposely designed device it's not much of a trade off either (especially considering that if you need replaceable batteries, many phones still come with them including the flagship phones from Samsung).
/illpass.
I admit the modular solutions might physically be clunkier and offer worse battery life. I am willing to live with some compromises on those if it means that I have more control over the device.
25-15 years ago your PC would've had 3-4 different extension cards, today unless you're a gamer or otherwise in need of a discrete graphics card you have none since they've migrated unto the CPU. And modern CPU's can run many games today even AAA title on quite acceptable settings for most casual Gamers, and that trend will only accelerate as they improve.
With AMD built in "APU" being based on the same architecture as their discrete cards, Intel's IRIS being able to drive more and more games, and NVIDIA getting more experience in integrating their own discrete graphic cores with CPU's in their SOC i doubt we'll see discrete graphic cards for much longer, beyond that the only thing that you'll have on your board is your memory and that too with stacked and 3D dies will be integrated soon enough. You already have desktops the with a 10cm^2 footprint that have the same CPU and memory that you put in your tower, within a couple of years there won't be a single discrete component on that board at all.
I for one don't see how being able to customize hardware translates to having any more control over the device i own than being able to select a device with the hardware i want. Infact the compromises forced by such architecture in my eyes result in less control as they force me to compromise on hardware to begin with. Today i can select a phone which has the screen i want, the battery i want, the camera i want and the SOC i want, yes i might be limited to certain vendors but i don't see this change if my phone comes as a single magical block without as much as a sim card slit or as a complete Lego set.
But considering the current trend and the fact that your data and software becoming more and more detached from the device you use you get a different kind of freedom.
Considering that for virtually every discrete software today there is a cloud service, and eventually even streaming games trough the cloud (or your local network) will become technically viable why should you care whats inside your device? The only thing it will do is some basic processing and input/output it will become nothing more than a terminal.
And where the majority of the computation will be at your house or in the "cloud" it doesn't matter.
Heck I'm pretty sure that NVIDIA for example is already preparing for the future in which it can't sell graphic cards, at best it will be able to license it's technology.
That's why in my opinion they are working on their streaming technology so badly, I mean today there is absolutely no freaking reason to stream Call of Duty onto a tablet but in 2-3 years? That will probably be the default setting whether they sell you some game streaming box which you can buy that can run 3-4 games at the time onto multiple devices or sell their hardware in bulk it to who ever decides to revive OnLine or take on Playcast.
I for one can't wait for the time in which i will be completely free to choose which ever device i want because for all intents and purposes they'll do exactly the same thing and that is connect me to my data and applications. I'm sick of benchmarks, reviews, and constant upgrades, sick of throwing money down the toilet just to have a better screen or a faster CPU.
1. Monoculture of a single language per platform needs to go away. Its wasteful in terms of programmer productivity.
2. The data layer needs to be disjointed from the applications completely. Access to this data needs to be available on a system wide basis.
3. Power users frequently want to access their data programmatically. More attention needs to be paid to these use cases.
4. The bottom level cross application data layer needs to be based on some open standard allowing people to trivially get data in / out of the ecosystem via some scripts / programs / tools.
5. Applications need to be extensible by the end user.
IMHO I think it's neat technology but I would not personally want all the trade-offs of more bulk and weight just to have the ability to swap out parts.
Project Ara received an extension:
"A notable exception to the rule is Google's Project Ara, the modular Android smartphone with interchangeable components, which was granted an extension on its two-year deadline because it's promising enough that they're actually testing it in Puerto Rico."
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-atap-killed-project-to...
Currently computers are not modular and people that keep saying that they are actually tech enthusiasts that are willing to open up a pc and play with the innards.
A modular phone and ability to hot swap parts is something completely different than what we have in pc currently. I hope it catches on and is adopted into other devices as well.
IE taking out the gpu and processor from my phone and attaching it to my TV or tablet for gaming. Or the ability to upgrade the entertainment console in my car by just replacing a part.