We said there'd be more details on Google's futuristic modular smartphone initiative, Project Ara, when the first-ever developers conference took place, and that's true. Here's one: according to Google's Project Ara chief, you might get your first crack at a next-generation customizable smartphone January of next year.

Google's Project Ara is an attempt to re-think the smartphone: to make it customizable, down to the hardware, and to make it cheap to upgrade. Project Ara originally comes from a viral video/idea called Phonebloks.

Lego-Level Customization

Phonebloks was basically the idea that smartphones could be made up of Lego-like smartphone components. Every important piece of the smartphone could be added to the smartphone as a hardware block, depending on what function each user wanted to emphasize.


So for a photography nut, spending a little more on the photo sensor block and storage would make sense, but they could save on a cheaper processor and a decent screen. Gamers, on the other hand, might not need a sensor at all, but would want to get the best processor, battery, and HD screen. And whenever a new, faster component comes out, users could just buy the block and upgrade, rather than getting a whole new device - with all the migration and cost associated with that.

Google and Project Ara

Project Ara was originally part of Google-owned Motorola Mobility's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, headed by former U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) head, Regina Dugan. But when Google sold Motorola and decided it was getting out of the basic hardware business, it decided to keep ATAP and Project Ara.

Since then, Google has signaled it's serious about the modular smartphone concept, and with the developers conference for Ara being held this week, that signal is stronger than ever.

New Ara Details and Transparent Timeline

On Tuesday, Google's Project Ara leader Paul Eremenko said to potential developers that Google is projecting to have the basic building block, dubbed "Gray Phone," ready for the general public by January 2015. He said it will cost about $50.

Gray Phone will be what users can customize with smartphone components and custom chassis features going forward. It'll be a basic handset with a screen, battery, WiFi, and processor, with further functionality provided by the market and users' imaginations. And according to Eremenko, it's been given a lame name on purpose: "It's called the Gray Phone because it's meant to be drab gray to get people to customize it," he said.

Eremenko showed the prototype off, which features room for five 2x1 modules and two larger 2x2 modules. The basic Gray Phone will come with one 2x1 WiFi module taken up, along with a 2x2 module for the processor.

It's intended as a low-cost start, which Google hopes could be as ubiquitous and cheap as pay-as-you-go feature phones. "A Gray Phone could be shrink wrapped and something you could buy at your local convenience store," said Eremenko. "You fire up your Gray Phone, run the Ara configurator, and start purchasing modules in the marketplace." Google has previously touted Project Ara as the smartphone for the "5 billion of us" who don't have one yet.

There are a few other new details about Project Ara from the first day of Ara's developers conference, which livestreamed on YouTube earlier this afternoon. First, unsurprisingly, Ara will run the Android operating system, but Android isn't ready for Ara quite yet: the mobile OS doesn't support interchangeable, modular hardware systems. Android drivers for the Gray Phone should be ready in December, according to Eremenko. Second, as we previously surmised from a Project Ara hype video, Ara components will be held together by an electro-permanent magnetic locking system, which can be controlled via software. Ara will use a UniPro interface for high-speed point-to-point communication between the components.

Finally, the way that Ara components will be built is not quite ready yet, but is quickly on the way. As we previously reported, Ara was intended from the start to use high-speed 3D printing to create the blocks and custom body parts for Ara. The first 3D printer is due in August, with an improved system ready by January 2015.

Before that final date, there will be more Ara developers conferences and lots of steps to take, but the development timeline for Ara is incredibly fast and unbelievably transparent, compared to other Google projects like Glass, who's wide release date is still unknown. Who knows -- more people might be able to put together a next-generation Google modular smartphone before they can put on a pair of its smartglasses.

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