Motorola's Project Ara: The Age of Modular Computing

Motorola's Project Ara is described as the company's way to build highly customized, modular smartphones, but I think they are underselling its potential – perhaps intentionally.  If Ara succeeds, it will usher in an era of modular computing for consumers and businesses, with a potentially bigger payoff in the business sector.

Project Ara starts with a framework for a smartphone and modules that plug together to allow users to customize the functions of their device.  There's a lot of rah-rah about customization of the product for the individual so phones can be tailored to local markets around the globe. 

Ara is also a platform for third-party devices to be clicked into a stock smartphone, so you could turn a off-the-shelf phone into a medical scanner, water quality sampler, or just about anything else you can think of so long as: A) it follows the Ara interface standards, and B) it fits into the smartphone like form factor.

But what if I don't need a screen ? Or if I don't need a "phone" (whatever that means these days)?

Already, wearable tech such as Google Glass and Samsung Gear provide different and alternative user interfaces and paradigms on how people can access and collect information.  It might be time to blow the dust off the term "Personal Area Network" (PAN) and re-examine how it addresses and fits into the world of wearable tech.

At the personal level, Ara should enable customizable wearable tech devices, with modules swappable on the fly between smartphone, wrist device, motorcycle helmet, and even Ye Olde Desktop PC for data backup/sync and charging if nothing else.

But Motorola shouldn't get totally absorbed in the consumer world.  Apply Ara to the so-called "Internet of Things" and it becomes a lot more interesting.   Currently, machine to machine (M2M) devices are highly customized and tightly integrated.  Ara would enable any business to rapidly customize M2M devices.  Instead of stocking one widget that required satellite communications capability and another that needed both cellular and satellite, a company can simply stock parts as needed, snap them together with the necessary sensors and put them where they are needed.  Add more battery life along with low-power firmware for long-life applications or "snap in" a solar panel for trickle charging.

Motorola announced a development agreement with 3D Systems this week to create a continuous high-speed 3D printing production platform and fulfillment system to support Project Ara.  Expect future announcements from Motorola to focus on business-customized devices.  Six billion consumers sounds like a great market, but businesses are willing to pay a bit more in exchange for getting exactly what they want.