Since Project Ara was announced a few years ago, and then incorporated into Google’s ATAP, many have been excited about the thought of having a smartphone that they can change out the camera, or the storage, or the battery or even the display, whenever they wanted. We knew right away that this wouldn’t be something that would be available right away. Last year at the Google ATAP breakout session at Google I/O, they showed off Ara a bit more, showing that you could hotswap modules like the camera without having to turn off the phone. And then proceeded to take a picture of everyone in the room.
Project Ara is getting closer and closer to being available for everyone, although it’s still not here. We’re expecting to hear more about it at Google I/O which takes place May 18th through the 20th. And now it looks like Google is polling the public on their opinion of Project Ara, in terms of pricing. Remember, Google is going to need to price this thing appropriately if they want it to be somewhat of a success. And that’s what they are using Google Opinion Rewards for. One of the questions that appeared was “Would you be willing to pay more money for a phone that after 6 months, gets the ability to become a mobile wallet without you having to do anything?” Now that may not be Project Ara, but just a phone that gets the Android Pay update. However, being able to pop in a NFC chip to your Project Ara smartphone would be a big deal.
Some other questions included “Would you be willing to pay more money for a phone that after 6 months runs faster?” and another was “Would you be willing to pay more money for a phone that after 6 months gets new privacy features like Gets (sic) new privacy features like fingerprint ID or guest mode?” Definitely painting a picture of what Project Ara could be. As we know we’ll be able to pop in a new processor, as well as fingerprint sensors and much more.
While we likely won’t be seeing Project Ara go on sale at Google I/O or even later this year, it does look like they are definitely getting closer to the launch of Project Ara. Something that will definitely be exciting for many Android users out there. Goodbye two-year upgrades.
