Project Ara Scrapped

Reuters: Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts:

Alphabet Inc’s Google has suspended Project Ara, its ambitious effort to build what is known as a modular smartphone with interchangeable components, as part of a broader push to streamline the company’s hardware efforts, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The move marks an about-face for the tech company, which announced a host of partners for Project Ara at its developer conference in May and said it would ship a developer edition of the product this autumn.

The company’s aim was to create a phone that users could customize on the fly with an extra battery, camera, speakers or other components.

I called this two years ago. It’s a fun idea, but it’s not practical.

What nerds (egineers) tend to forget is most of the population doesn’t like to tinker with their electronics. They just want them to work.