Google’s Project Ara will be long in coming due to faulty electropermanent magnets.
Based on their recent Twitter post, Google’s Project Ara gets delayed until 2016 for faulty magnets. The decision came after the innovative smartphone prototype flunked the drop test. Pun intended.
Project Ara, Google’s concept of building and commercializing a do-it-yourself smartphone will not see completion very soon, according to the spokespersons’ recent declaration. The search giant has delayed its production due to a series of malfunctioning incidents that they have encountered during tests.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the idea behind Project ARA smartphones, the device gives users the possibility to configure and reconfigure their mobile phones based on their wishes and needs. For that, they can simply attach new accessories like cameras, batteries, cellular radios and even pollution sensors, according to the official description on Google’s website.
The developing enterprise has triggered lots of attention with their new project as the idea of a modular smartphone that can be shaped and turned into pretty much any electronic device sounds more than awesome. However, production is not as easy as it sounds.
Several days ago, the company took to their Twitter account to inform users that they are testing a new signature experience for the attachment or detachment of the modules. As it turned out, Google was hoping electropermanent modules would suffice to attach/detach modules AND keep them in place under all conditions. Yet, the first drop test has shown that the smartphone breaks into all constituting modules if dropped from a relatively small distance.
The experiment has led Google into tweeting that they will no longer use electropermanent magnets for their Project Ara smartphone. The message was explained by #Project Ara and #FailedTheDropTest hashtags letting followers know what their post was all about.
The news was sad indeed as the new prototype has been anticipated for more than a year since it was first made public. Google informed the press at the beginning of the year that they will be launching the modular smartphones in 2015 in Puerto Rico as a trial program. Both the location and the due date of the pilot program have been changed now, so do-it-yourself smartphones will first be tested in restricted areas in the U.S. in 2016.
Rumor has it that Google has once again handed the production of Project Ara to Motorola as it used to be in the beginning. These rumors have not been confirmed, although it would be interesting to know whether this change has something to do with the failure of the electropermanent magnets.
In the meantime, let us feast your eyes with a brief YouTube presentation of the intelligent smartphone and share your opinions on Google’s Project Ara with us in the comment box below.
Image source: www.techradar.com
Melissa Gansler
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