A report from earlier today from Reuters revealed that Google had essentially scrapped their plans for Project Ara, their modular smartphone project. However at that time, Google did not confirm anything yet, at least until now when the folks at VentureBeat reached out and a spokesperson confirmed it.
According to the spokesperson, they told VentureBeat that Google had indeed suspended their plans for Project Ara. Unfortunately the spokesperson declined to comment any further, so as to what the official reason may be, we can’t say for sure. However as per Reuters’ report, apparently this move was done by Google to streamline their hardware efforts.
It is unclear if we will see Project Ara revived again, but considering that Google has yet to bring back some of their previously shuttered projects, it would seem unlikely. Last we heard, Google could be planning on licensing out the technology behind Project Ara, so maybe not all is lost after all, but who will pick up the technology remains to be seen.
While modular smartphones hold a ton of potential, so far some of the efforts we’ve seen aren’t exactly commercial successes. For example LG tried the modular thing with the LG G5 and the LG Friends accessories, but safe to say that hasn’t exactly taken off. Motorola has tried something similar with the Moto Mods accessories, but once again, they’re not exactly being raved about it.
Filed in . Read more about Google and Project Ara.