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Project Ara Is Technology's Best Hope for a Maker Nation

The modular phone can turn transform the mobile industry, but only if Google invests in showing us why.

April 22, 2014
Motorola Project Ara

Google is doing something brilliant with Project Ara. It is taking the mobile phone, something most of us can't live without, and attempting to disrupt an entire industry, while at the same time laying groundwork to convert as many people as it can into makers.

The "maker movement" has been chugging along now in the geek zeitgeist for a handful of years. It's largely dominated by hobbies that include 3D printing, arduino, soldering, sawing, and sewing. In places like New York, maker culture has, for better or worse, has been hipsterized to the point where it's starting to feel inaccessible to the rest of society. So despite what you may hear in your favorite Williamsburg watering hole, the maker movement is still very much a niche that continues to grow, albeit rather slowly.

Despite what the tech pundits say, technologies like 3D printing are still very much running on passion and not practicality. Until people can produce a piece of clothing instead of a desk ornament, most people won't be flocking to Best Buy for the latest 3D-printing wunderkind. However, phones are a completely different story. When you think about it, the idea of customizing your phone didn't really exist until the launch of the Moto X, which lets you pick the color, texture, and even wallpaper of your device via Moto Maker. Now, Google wants to take the concept of customization to an entirely new level with Project Ara, which in layman terms, is a functional LEGO phone. Admittedly, that's a crude description, because Ara is one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a long time. It has the potential to completely transform the mobile industry. That said, it's just as likely that Project Ara will fail, or at the least become another element of the maker niche.

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I'm guessing Google doesn't want that to happen, but it will be interesting to see where a modular phone fits into Google's long-term mobile strategy. My hope is that when next January comes and the first Ara phone is released, Google invests a lot of resources into making Ara accessible to everyone, including kids. To achieve that, Google finally needs to establish a brick-and-mortar strategy. If not a full-service retail store, then at least temporary pop-up stores that invite people of all ages to come in and sit around a table covered in Phonebloks. I can't think of a better way to redefine the mobile phone industry and teach product design than to involve the consumer in the actual construction of the device, which based on the evidence so far, will be as easy as snapping LEGO blocks into place.

Google has been doing some impressive stuff when it comes to phones lately. With the Nexus line getting well-deserved acclaim along with a friendly price, Google can continue scoring wins with initiatives like Project Ara while we keep waiting for Apple to wow us for the first time in a while (and that's coming from an iPhone user). However, the one thing Apple seems to be unbeatable at is marketing, or convincing you why you should pay more for its device. So to that end, I really hope Google pulls out all the stops for Ara if it truly believes it can impact the future of the mobile phone market. Come January, I'm really hoping I can go somewhere and start playing with my blocks, and then make a call or sent a tweet with them.

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About Seamus Condron

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Seamus Condron

Seamus is a veteran social media and marketing pro who was the first voice of @Mediabistro, one of the first NYC media brands on Twitter. He's also worked at organizations including Hearst and ReadWriteWeb. He loves technology but prides himself on being a heretic and wishes there were more of them. He probably has no interest in being on your panel about how social media is changing blah blah blah, or your app that lets you "connect and share with friends." You can find him on Twitter at @SeamusCondron.

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