Motorola's Project Ara modular phone prototype is 'almost ready'

Motorola's Project Ara modular phone prototype is 'almost ready'
Moto revealed Project Ara back in October

The dawn of fully customisable smartphones mightn't be too far away, with Motorola revealing its modular phone prototype is almost ready for action.

In a Google hangouts chat Moto CEO Dennis Woodside said the mysterious Project Ara initiative, which will allow users to slide in and out their processors, RAM and camera modules is close to being realised.

"There is a [Project Ara] prototype and it is pretty close," he told popular YouTube user Marques Brownlee.

"The idea is you have a skeleton that holds together a set of components and the components slide in and out. If we have the interfaces and the protocols that enable the speaker to speak directly to the CPU then this would all be possible."

Moto Maker-bound

Woodside also dropped a significant hint that, once ready, the modular smartphones and components will be sold on the Moto Maker customisation website.

"Moto Maker was the beginning of a more exciting and longer term story which is how do we involve consumers and give them more choice," he added.

"Ara is much further out but you can see how those two things tie together and how as we introduce new materials into Moto Maker we're gonna pursue that theme across our product line going forward. What we'd like to eventually get to is [customising] functionality within the device and that's where Project Ara and Moto Maker may converge."

Moto's new direction seems heavily centric on giving smartphone users exactly what they want in a smartphone. The Moto X offers custom backplates, materials and colour schemes and Project Ara will take those decisions to the ultimate level for tech enthusiasts.

You can check out the 40-minute video below

Via TechnoBuffalo

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.