Google Releases Developer Kit for Project Ara Modular Smartphone

Google's highly talked about Project Ara modular smartphone has already seen a sort of craze among the ones who have following up on the new technology that's set to arrive from Google later down the line. But what are the chances of the new technology coming over before the end of the current year? We are guessing not much.

However, going by reports related to the technology, Google has already officially pushed out the first-ever developer kit for its Project Ara modular smartphone. The new developer kit for the same also provides reference for implementations of various design features.

Image Courtesy: Tech Crunch

Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, which has released the Module Developers Kit (MDK) for Project Ara, said: "The Ara platform consists of an on-device packet-switched data network based on the MIPI UniPro protocol stack, a flexible power bus, and an elegant industrial design that mechanically unites the modules with an endoskeleton."

The MDK also notes that the success of the modular smartphone concept is quite dependent on the formation of a rich ecosystem of modular blocks that users can easily pick and choose from.

"Ara's success is predicated on a rich, vibrant, and diverse ecosystem of modules from a myriad of developers," the post adds.

"Users would be able to select modules from an online marketplace using a confgurator that facilitates user choice and curates the confguration process to ensure that the selection of modules provides the expected system-level functionality."

Moreover, the MDK has also detailed on how Google is also considering a discrete set of configurations for sending off different sized metal endoskeletons into which the various modular blocks will be ultimately slotted.

Lastly, the new 81-page MDK also discusses the "pebble-like form expressed by the Ara module design language", and even goes into specific detail of how modules should be designed -- that they have a rectilinear footprint, a 1.5mm corner curvature, and that their base must be a single unit of machined 6061 aluminum to ensure a snug fit.