When Android was brand new, many thought Android was just an iOS wannabe. I recognized right away the revolution that Android was bringing. An open platform for developers to play on and do whatever they like with no restrictions. From the individual developer to the large corporations, everyone has an even playing ground.
Over the years, Android matured into a user-friendly OS that anyone can operate. Defaulting to the most user friendly settings but allowing unlimited customization open to anyone to play around with while appealing to normal users.
ARA is following suit and doing this all over again with hardware.
Keeping up in the tech realm, I have seen many things over the years that have pushed the bounds of innovation only to be shelved because not everyone and their mom would want it in a smartphone. Basically if it did not appeal to multi-millions of users then it would never find its way into the tightly integrated smartphone chip board.
ARA destroys those boundaries and opens up everyone to prototype chips and... OPTIONS. For example, if you want a super camera (13mp camera with video capture at 900fps was demoed) you can get it. If you don't care about a front facing camera, leave it off and save money.
In the same way the openness of Android can be ignored, so can ARA's. If you don't want to build your entire phone, you can buy pre-packaged versions (such as a photographer's pack or a hiker's pack). This allows you to get the modules you'd want in an easy to choose way.
You can shop for and buy individual modules exactly like you would buy an app. Google is even working on ways to get same day and next day shipping in many areas.
Google is all over this and while it does have the backing of some big companies, it does not need it. We are going to see hardware makers coming out of the wood works on this one.
I can not wait to get my hands on one and see the many modules I can not even imagine right now.
P.S. If you were wondering about the unique modules, Google reported that 75 applicants applied for the $100k contest to create a module that would be used daily and has not been seen in a smartphone currently. They reported that out of those 75 applicants, 1/3rd of them met those criteria. That means 25 modules of uses for your smartphone that you would probably use daily that is currently not in any smartphone.
I am just itching to see what all of these are!
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