Google Project Ara public announcement at Launch Festival

Notes: register for Project Ara's developer conference on April 15~16 at http://www.projectara.com/

This 15~ minute interview video with Paul Eremenko, head of Project Ara, Associate VP of ATAPs discloses a lot of information regarding Project Ara, the modular smartphone project as popularized by the Phonebloks concept video.

I'll try to summarize it as best I can.

Development progress

Even though a functional test prototype was not available on stage for demo, ATAPs initially expected it to be ready, which means that the project has progressed further than most of us would imagine.

Google expects to officially launch the device (to developers) at the conference on April 15~16. Sign up at projectara.com to view online.

Further down the line, they expect mainstream consumer products (modules) to be out in the market by next year.

3D Systems is working with Google to bring consumer-grade 3D printers to the average Joe's household. 3D printing will be capable of printing casings for the modules (aesthetics customization) as well as some modules themselves (functional customization). Paul mentions that the Wifi module can completely be 3D printed, but doesn't go into details as to what other hardware can be self-manufactured.

Project Ara's market

Project Ara's vision is to be a hardware equivalent of Android: open and free to everyone who is willing to participate. Just like a developer half way around the world can rack in millions of dollars with Flappy Birds, Project Ara hopes to empower developers by lowering the barrier to participation.

Google will maintain some control regarding the technology that powers the electricity and data transfer wiring system, but the development kit will be available to everyone and, if built to specs, every product can be marketed.

Google expects that the hardware market will open up to a lot more players than just a dozen OEMs that we have today (HTC, Sony, Samsung, LGE, Motorola, etc.) "Beats by Dre." was mentioned as a viable manufacturer for audio modules.

This means that companies or individuals with a specialized set of skills can now enter the hardware market, so long as they can hire someone with hardware engineering abilities.

For example, camera makers like Canon, Nikon, Leica, Ricoh, Pentax, etc. who now can have a piece of the smartphone market pie. Audio equipment manufacturers that aren't typically contracted with smartphone OEMs like Audio Technica or Bose can also join.

More than that, even sectors that aren't typically related to hardware manufacturing like medical can join in, due to high interest in personalized medicine / quantified self.

Ala the Play Store, Google will step in to maintain some level of standard to help consumers choose their modules. A validation process is due before a product can be "certified" by the Google Ara Store, so to name it. Like Android apps, modules can be sold and used outside the official store.

Overhead is expected in exchange for modularity, but Google hopes to sell some bare-bone devices--named the "gray phone"--with just the frame, processor, battery, and a Wifi-module for a targeted price of $50.

An Ara phone's anatomy

The "Endo" endoskeleton

Dubbed "the Endo", the mainframe of the Ara phone is a low-cost, minimal frame onto which modules can be attached. Google expects to premier with three form factors for the endos: small, medium, and large and sell them at sub-$50 price range.

Figure 1. A view of the Ara phone with modules taken out of the endoskeleton

Figure 2. Small-sized endoskeleton

Endos serve to run power and data transfer between modules. Any module slot can supply power (so you can have a monster phone with 10,000 mAh, I guess), and transfer data.

The data transfer rate is claimed to be 10 Gbits/sec in the back, and (if I haven't heard Paul incorrectly), 20 Gbits/sec in the front.

Endos also house a small battery to enable hot-swap of modules. I.e. you don't have to shut down the phone to swap a module out.

The Modules

Modules contain electronics on the inside and casings that are sealed by electromagnets that don't require clips or screws or anything while still providing enough cohesiveness to resist finger-prying.

The modules are user-serviceable (as Paul claims). I presume you can stop supplying power to the modules to release the magnets. So you can change your phone's look in a matter of minutes (supposing you already have the new casings 3D printed).

Modules provide all of the phone's functionalities: from power supply to computational processing, camera capture, music production / video display, connectivitity, etc. You are probably familiar with this concept via the PhoneBloks video.