Project Ara and the 'Spiral 2'

Back in 2004 when the Google search engine was first available at large to the public, it revolutionized the way in which information was accessed over the internet. It was perhaps the first time in history that terabytes of data could be scanned in a matter of seconds to deliver just the information to anyone sitting in any corner of the world needed.  From then to 2015 Google has come
a long way. With projects like android, google glass and google maps. The Mountain View company has been the epicenter of some of the biggest technological revolutions in human history.

This week google launched it’s spiral 2. A child of it’s very own ’Project Ara’. And why exactly should you care? Because these phones have sent shockwaves across global smartphone markets and sent almost every smartphone company in a tizzy. ‘And how exactly did google manage this?’. Well, the project Ara phones are basically like modern day desktop PCs (but of course, come in sizes that fit in your pocket).

 If the monitor stops working on your PC, you wouldn’t go shopping for a new PC would you? (unless, you’re using a Mac). You would simply throw away the defective monitor and replace it with one that works. And the same could be said of the speakers, the keyboard, the mouse, the RAM, the Hard disk and a dozen other components. This is exactly what google has manged to achieve with the smartphone.

  

 Now no more buying a new phone every-time your screen cracks due to a fall, or the camera stops working , or your battery can no longer provide you with enough juice. All you have to do is replace the faulty part with a new one and voila! You are good to go.                                                                       

The ‘Spiral 2’ is the latest prototype released by Google and is being launched in Puerto Rico in June this year. Although the specs are nowhere close to a flagship product but Google has managed to get in a 720p screen and a 5MP primary camera. The  processors include the Marvell PXA1928 and the NVIDIA Tegra K1. The phone supports 3-G and WiFi connectivity and google plans to have 4G on it’s Spiral 3 model. The battery provides 20 to 30% lesser backup than the conventional smartphones but the fact that hot swapping of batteries is possible perhaps makes up for it.

As of now the phone has 11 modules, all of which can be removed and most of them can be swapped while the phone is still running. Google plans to extend this number to 30 with it’s spiral 3. The module exteriors too can be custom designed by the customer using the shell software by google (much like Motorola’s ‘Moto Maker’).

Although it’s going to be a long time before the phone is widely available the very idea of a phone with parts that can removed and swapped is exciting enough. In 2011 it was Android, perhaps 2015 will be Project Ara. Here's a clever 50 second video released by Google.