• by Mahi de Silva , Op-Ed Contributor, June 18, 2015

Have you heard of Project Ara? It was the project that Google acquired as part of its purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012, and it kept the product and team even after selling the company to Lenovo just two years later.

The mission of the project is to supply six billion people with mobile devices that have interchangeable components — kind of like a “DIY” smartphone that fits the user’s exact needs.

A truly custom mobile device

While traditional phones cram as many parts as possible onto a single circuit board, or even a single chip, Project Ara is simply an endoskeleton, a framework that allows the user to insert various modules that communicate with the main board and with each other via networking technology and wireless capacitive pads.

This means that modular phone owners could mix and match components to build a mobile device that fits their exact specifications. Someone who loves photography, for instance, might swap out the base camera module for a higher-pixel version. A business traveler might choose to upgrade the battery module for longer life.

Hardware as flexible as apps

Modular smartphones would rely on the existence of a hardware marketplace, with the kind of diversity that we now see in app stores. Want a module for detecting pollution? How about a module that gives your camera night vision? Or an app that utilizes your smartphone’s compass to help you turn your device into a metal detector? Just as publishers and independent developers have created the massive app ecosystem, the possibilities for hardware are fairly endless.

With these kind of rolling choices, smartphones will no longer become obsolete within a matter of months, nor will users have to wait until their plan renews to get the latest features.

But do consumers really want this?

Apple has built its business on providing a great core product with enough customization options to make the consumer feel like they have a choice — similar to buying a car. With modular phones, Google is making a somewhat dangerous assumption that consumers want a DIY experience, and there is a new sense of individuality and ownership over the final product; that’s not something that has proven to generate widespread adoption.

Mobile advertising on a modular phone

While there may not be enough of these devices for marketers to take the project seriously, it’s interesting to think about what mobile ads would look like on one. To start, it’s quite possible that they would be a mess. We already have enough problems with standardization on Android devices, given the nearly infinite number of screen sizes, graphics capabilities, connectivity options, and other factors that make Android such a challenging space for uniform display of mobile ad creative.

Targeting with new layers of information

Despite those challenges, it is exciting to think about how these phones will essentially be hyper-configured to meet the exact needs of that user, so that the phone becomes a very accurate blueprint of each consumer’s identity, which can be used for highly refined targeting.

Take, for example, an individual who purchases a module that implements a thermal imager and pulse oximeter so they can measure pulse rate and blood oxygen levels. This individual is likely to be interested in health and fitness and would be more inclined to respond favorably to advertisements that align with those interests.

And, as wearables and near-field communication (NFC) become more ubiquitous, the phone becomes even more of a blueprint. Advertisers could build a more precise profile of the user because they would know how the device itself is being used, when it is being used, and where — but also how those individual modules are being used, and what that says about that user’s preferences.

Sensory ads accelerated by new hardware

Something else to consider is how brands could leverage the modules to create ads with more sensory impact. Right now, advertisers are limited by the physical capabilities of the hardware that come with the phone. Although the big device manufacturers are creating new functionality like iris recognition and depth perception cameras, it is quite likely that the competition within the new, independent module marketplace would speed up the rate of innovation. The result? More hardware that advertisers can play with, developing and experimenting with interactive ad units that appeal to senses beyond mere sight and sound.

Free module, “brought to you by…”

Brands could develop modular hardware themselves to spread their message in an entirely new way. Imagine if General Electric, for example, developed that pollution detection module mentioned earlier, or if Claritin gave away pollen detection modules. Nike could produce or sponsor the actual heart rate tracker, and the hardware itself would essentially become the message.