Google to Launch 'Modular' Smartphone in Puerto Rico

Google Inc. on Wednesday said it would launch a "modular" smartphone in Puerto Rico, part of an audacious and risky effort by the Internet giant to upend the way mobile devices are designed, built and sold.

The Ara smartphone, which has components that can be replaced and upgraded through a hardware marketplace similar to an app store, will go on sale on the island in the second half of 2015.

Google is partnering with cellular carriers OpenMobile and Claro, part of America Movil, the largest wireless-service provider in Latin America. Google is also teaming up with Ingram Micro Inc. to handle inventory and shipping for the phones and modules on the island.

Google is a dominant player in the smartphone industry, with its Android mobile operating system powering most handsets. But the sector is maturing, and Google is looking for the next big consumer technology by developing and testing wearable gadgets, smart home devices, self-driving cars and health-monitoring systems.

Project Ara, led by Paul Eremenko, hopes to redefine how smartphones are sold and used. Instead of buying a fully built handset and replacing it once every couple of years, the modular smartphone is designed to be constantly upgraded and customized.

The group has built a metal frame for the phone and has been encouraging other hardware companies to make flat, rectangular "modules" that can be slotted into the frame, where they will be held in place by magnets. Each module performs a different task, and Google plans to sell them in an app store, similar to its own Google Play store for software applications.

Project Ara is one of the most advanced projects to emerge from the Advanced Technology and Projects Group, or ATAP, a former Motorola research lab that Google kept when it sold the phone maker to Lenovo Group Ltd. last year. The Ara phone has been in development for about two years. ATAP is working on a handful of experimental initiatives, such as Project Tango, a 3-D mapping technology, a digital animation effort and digital tattoos.

Write to Alistair Barr at [e-mail]

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