Do ye remember when the Phonebloks project was first announced, and I said how there was next to no chance of it ever actually happening? And then, do ye remember how Motorola got behind the idea and announced Project Ara, a project to make a similar modular phone with the Phonebloks’ creator’s input? And ye remember how I was never so happy to have been proved wrong?
Well now, we know a bit more about what’s happening with Project Ara, thanks to a press release from 3D printing company 3D Systems; turns out that the two companies, Motorola and 3D Systems, have joined forces.
So, what’s the crack?
Welp, it should first be noted that this agreement is pending “successful completion of the development phase”, so 3D Systems needs to prove they can do what Motorola wants ’em to do (print components in new materials, such as conductive materials for the battery, perhaps), before Motorola will, well, let ’em actually do it. And what does Motorola want ’em to do? Well, they’re a 3D printing company, so we can assume that Motorola wants 3D Systems to actually print out the various components that’d go into making the eventual Project Ara phone.
In hindsight, I really should’ve seen the fact that they’d use 3D printing coming.
Consider something like the Sony Xperia Z1 or the ginormous Samsung Galaxy Note 3; they’re both meticulously crafted phones, but with neither of them being modular, they can be made using, well, let’s call them “old school” production lines. It’s the same with phones made by HTC or Nokia, or whoever, but the point is that such production methods wouldn’t work for Project Ara. Sure, Motorola could build the components that way, but the whole point of Project Ara is to create the ultimate in customisation, which would eventually lead to people being able to pick whatever modules they wanted for their phone, and even, one day, design their own modules.
That wouldn’t be possible with traditional production lines, but it is possible, maybe even trivially easy (look at the success of Shapeways, after all), with 3D printing.
So, basically, Project Ara might not just be the future of smartphones; it might also be the future of phone manufacturing, too!
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