Google drops plans for innovative modular phone

Google's Project Ara was a radical idea: create a flexible hardware platform for phones that would allow manufacturers to easily swap customized components in and out, much as is done with many open sourced software platforms these days. But Google has apparently found the challenge too daunting and has decided to discontinue the initiative. “Project Ara was a fascinating concept but I would’ve been surprised if it had taken off commercially,” Bryan Ma, vice president of devices research at IDC told PC World. “Smartphones by nature of their small sizes demand very tight integration.”