Why Google's Project Ara Modular Smartphone Was A Complete Failure

Smartphone enthusiasts everywhere will almost certainly remember the days when modular smartphones were thought to be the next big thing. With some of the biggest names in the world supporting modular form factors, including Google, Motorola and LG, most consumers and tech enthusiasts are speculating that modular smartphones are indeed the future. Why not? The concept of a smartphone that can be customized by the user and updated at the right moment certainly seems like a recipe for revolutionary and overwhelming success.

But no mention of modular smartphones would be complete without a mention of Project Ara, perhaps the most comprehensive and well-thought-out plan to bring modular smartphones into the mainstream. Almost a decade later, modular smartphones are nowhere to be seen and Project Ara is all but forgotten. Almost every brand seems to have ditched it, and one big name in the modular smartphone space has even left the industry.

Apart from the foldable phones, the smartphones also remain essentially the same in the slab form factor. A question arises here. Why did the seemingly revolutionary idea of a modular smartphone not take off, and more importantly, why did Google's Project Ara disappear?

Modular dream

The man who overshadowed the modular phone.

Although modular smartphones were proposed at the beginning of the smartphone era, the concept became extremely popular in early 2010 when Motorola, then owned by Google, decided to launch a project to build the world's first modular smartphone. Google named the mission Project Ara, which is also part of Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group.

Project Ara was sparked in 2013, and teams from Google and Motorola spent hours perfecting the modular smartphone recipe. Initial progress was rapid and the team produced the first modular phone prototype in April 2015. Called "Spiral 1", this prototype had a basic chassis that could house modular components. A year later, the Project Ara team created the Spiral 2, an improved version of the Spiral 1 with a bigger and better screen.

Despite considerable media interest surrounding Google's first two modular prototypes, the company quickly decided that the feasibility and commercial viability of a modular phone was questionable. Just a year after Google launched Spiral 2, the company officially announced that it will discontinue Project Ara and with it the famous Google ATP group.

Despite the setbacks, some companies, albeit on a smaller scale and with fewer resources than Google, are still working on building modular smartphones that can do it all.

Everything is wrong with modular phones

While the modular smartphone concept isn't dead yet, many analysts now believe that Google's 2013 and 2014 technologies weren't advanced enough to create a practical and reliable design. Fast forward to 2023 and due to the lack of modular smartphones in the market, it is safe to assume that users of modular smartphones are still facing problems with today's technology.

Plus, outside of tech enthusiasts, journalists, and writers, not many people want to go modular in the first place. Consumers want simple devices that work without extra features. However, this became impossible for modular phones during Project Ara, mainly due to a lack of standardization between component manufacturers and phone manufacturers. Then there is the matter of the power of a modular phone and its individual components.

Google apparently anticipated the lack of consumer interest in modular phones and discontinued the program in 2016 after the release of the Spiral 2. Although the search giant did not give specific reasons for the cancellation, the consensus is that a phone with interchangeable components was unable to achieved commercial success.

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