Google’s Project Ara abandons Puerto Rico pilot, says it’s ‘recalculating’ modular smartphone

The world is going to have to wait a bit longer before it gets its hands on Google’s modular smartphone known as Project Ara.

Google said back in January it would launch a market pilot of the phone in Puerto Rico this year. However, in a series of tweets, the Project Ara team said those plans have changed.

https://twitter.com/ProjectAra/status/631903968562536448

Project Ara is creating a kind of skeleton for a smartphone that lets users snap on different modules, such as sensors or more memory. This kind of hardware personalization has some observers predicting that this might represent the future of smartphones and mobile computing.

Of course, the delay comes as Google is undertaking a major organizational change to become a holding company called “Alphabet.” As there are a gazillion projects under its umbrella, the re-org naturally prompts speculation that various futuristic projects could be cancelled or scaled back.

In the case of Project Ara, the team doesn’t say where or when the pilot might happen. But it did promise more updates next week. And in the meantime, the team wants everyone to know that Project Ara isn’t dead.

https://twitter.com/ProjectAra/status/631905320697135104