Project Ara has been an interesting concept from the very beginning, offering the capability to put the power of choice and individuality in the hands of the consumer when it comes to picking out their next smartphone tech. When it comes to choice with smartphones, never before have we had the capability to choose what we actually want with a specific phone, only the choice of which phones to purchase. With Project Ara though, Google is changing everything and aims to bring the modular device to market so consumers will be able to essentially build their phone with the specs they prefer.
Now we’re learning that the BLOCKS modular smartwatch (which was announced around March of 2014) could end up with some cross-compatibility with Google’s Project Ara modular smartphones which are now scheduled to launch at retail in Puerto Rico in the near future. Much like the Project Ara smartphones, the BLOCKS smartwatch is made up of different modular components, all which come with different functionality like a SIM slot, GPS, and other types of features. The modules themselves are meant to house components which can be added onto the watch but they also conveniently make up the smartwatche’s wristband, and are all connected to the main component, the watch face. It’s actually a really cool idea and we could see a cross-compatibility relationship between it and the Ara devices working really nicely.
The BLOCKS team apparently was able to have a sit down with a couple people from the Project Ara team including head of the project, Paul Eremenko, stating that they were excited to learn of Eremenko’s interest in the compatibility between the two devices, and that it was “definitely something they were going to be looking into” and that they would “make a perfect match.” We’d say that is a pretty fair assumption as it just sounds like a match made in heaven. Two modular devices that could work in tandem sounds like a perfectly awesome idea. Check out the BLOCKS video below to get a grasp of the watch if this is the first you’ve heard of it. It’s actually sounding quite cool and we can’t wait to see where the development takes it.