The Project Ara delay has been a focal point of news this week, with the highly anticipated modular smartphone project being delayed till 2016 due to various reasons. While one of the reasons was described as having too many iterations to consider, yet another reason has emerged as a reason to delay the project – the phone isn’t able to stay together during a drop test. The idea that a smartphone can’t stay together after being dropped is becoming a rarity these days with more and more devices adopting non-removable batteries, but it’s quite another thing for all the internals of the device to scatter after a fall, which is what would happen in the case of a Project Ara device.
We are testing a signature experience to attach/detach modules. #ProjectAra #HopeYouLikeIt
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) August 19, 2015
From Project Ara’s tweets, it appears that “electropermanent magnets” were initially used, but presumably aren’t as permanent as their name suggests. To remedy this, Project Ara says they will be using a “signature experience”, which presumably loosely translates as something unique to Project Ara will be developed as a securing technology. Whatever it is, we’ll have to wait till 2016 at least to see it, but even so, we can’t wait.
UPDATE: So apparently failing the drop test was a joke; Project Ara says that they are changing securing mechanisms to something more robust, but not because the electropermanent magnets were failing.
BTW #FailedTheDropTest was a joke. Didn’t fail. We have been configuring a new solution. It’s better too. #WorkingOnOurHumor
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) August 20, 2015
What do you think about the Project Ara delay? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Twitter (1), (2) via The Verge
