Google Inc. on Wednesday said it would launch a "modular"
smartphone in Puerto Rico, part of an audacious and risky effort by
the Internet giant to upend the way mobile devices are designed,
built and sold.
The Ara smartphone, which has components that can be replaced
and upgraded through a hardware marketplace similar to an app
store, will go on sale on the island in the second half of
2015.
Google is partnering with cellular carriers OpenMobile and
Claro, part of America Movil, the largest wireless-service provider
in Latin America. Google is also teaming up with Ingram Micro Inc.
to handle inventory and shipping for the phones and modules on the
island.
Google is a dominant player in the smartphone industry, with its
Android mobile operating system powering most handsets. But the
sector is maturing, and Google is looking for the next big consumer
technology by developing and testing wearable gadgets, smart home
devices, self-driving cars and health-monitoring systems.
Project Ara, led by Paul Eremenko, hopes to redefine how
smartphones are sold and used. Instead of buying a fully built
handset and replacing it once every couple of years, the modular
smartphone is designed to be constantly upgraded and
customized.
The group has built a metal frame for the phone and has been
encouraging other hardware companies to make flat, rectangular
"modules" that can be slotted into the frame, where they will be
held in place by magnets. Each module performs a different task,
and Google plans to sell them in an app store, similar to its own
Google Play store for software applications.
Project Ara is one of the most advanced projects to emerge from
the Advanced Technology and Projects Group, or ATAP, a former
Motorola research lab that Google kept when it sold the phone maker
to Lenovo Group Ltd. last year. The Ara phone has been in
development for about two years. ATAP is working on a handful of
experimental initiatives, such as Project Tango, a 3-D mapping
technology, a digital animation effort and digital tattoos.
Write to Alistair Barr at alistair.barr@wsj.com
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