It was confirmed by a Google spokesperson that Project Ara will not be coming to market anymore. Although it has been previously reported last May that it will be shipped this fall, production did not push through due to several reasons pointed out.
After almost three years of development, the phone has been suspended, Venture Beat reported. According to a separate report by Reuters, the project was cancelled in order to "streamline the company's hardware efforts." Former Motorola President Rick Osterloh came back to Google to oversee the company's effort to "unify Google's various hardware efforts."
The report added that although Google may not be launching the phone by itself, it will be needing third parties in order to push through with the project. This may be through partnerships with licensing agreements.
Project Ara aims to become a smartphone with interchangeable parts that would allow consumers to modify the phone on their own according to specifications they would like to install in it.
Meanwhile, Bob O'Donnell of TECHnalysis Research said he was not surprised the project was cancelled. O'Donnell pointed out the interchangeable parts would make the product appear bulky and would be costly to produce.
The Ara group first attempted to bring out the smartphone in Puerto Rico last year, but cancelled the plan due to the cost it implicated and some technical problems encountered along the way. On the other hand, although Google already cancelled its plans, a similar smartphone is already available in the market.
Released last July by Motorola, the company was able to release a "modular" smartphone dubbed as Moto Z. The said device is capable of interchangeably switching some of its components like Moto Mods and other hardware like speakers, a battery pack and even a projector.
It has no headphone jack which requires it to use a Bluetooth headset. It is also the thinnest smartphone available in the market today, coming only at 5.19 millimeters. Motorola is now under Lenovo, which acquired the company early this year.
Although the suspension is already final, some consumers who anticipated the release of Project Ara may be hopeful it may be launched in the future, if not now.
For other details regarding the cancellation of Project Ara, watch the video clip below.