Customizable Phones - Project Ara

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/feature/mobile-phone/google-project-ara-google-modular-smartphone-release-date-price-features-developer-edition-2016-3514534/

Recently during Google I/O they announced their progress on Project Ara. Project Ara is an idea originally called phone blocks. The idea is to make a modular smartphone so you can swap out parts. Essentially it is kind of like a PC, where you can upgrade parts such as swapping out a graphics card or upgrading memory etc. A modular design would make it easier to upgrade parts and fix parts. It also allows ultra customization, for example if someone enjoys taking pictures they could upgrade to a better camera or if someone likes to play games then they could swap out to a better graphics card. In the recent Google I/O their progress is minimal so far but there is a lot of potential. So far they found out ways where you could swap to a bigger battery and camera. However, they are expected to ship out a “gray phone” which is the base for the modules. This will give developers a chance to explore and create more modules, thus creating the Ara phone. In order for this phone to be successful it will need a lot of 3^rd party support. Many companies had integrated similar ideas such as easier memory upgrades or graphics card swaps with laptops but without the support it was not made to happen.  I think this idea is amazing because most people upgrade their phones once a year or once every 2 years in favor of wanting better specs. But if this phone comes out people can just buy the new graphics card and their phone will feel like new.