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.