Google's modular smartphone Project Ara, which lets you swap out every important hardware component so you can upgrade your device piecemeal, is taking a detour. Google announced in January that Ara would debut in Puerto Rico, but after about three months of silence, the Project Ara team announced over Twitter yesterday that they were rerouting their market pilot.
Market pilot re-route. Stay tuned for more details. #ProjectAra #recalculating
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) August 13, 2015
And this is not goodbye Puerto Rico! Nos vemos en el futuro! #ProjectAra #tilwemeetagain
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) August 13, 2015
More updates coming your way next week. Stay with us. #ProjectAra
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) August 13, 2015
They haven’t revealed what the alternative will be — only that they’ll be ready to announce further details sometime next week. The team also hinted that Ara would come to Puerto Rico eventually. The change of plans follows the company's announcement that they would restructure, turning Google into the largest subsidiary of a holding company called Alphabet.
It’s good to know Project Ara isn’t dead, but anyone with plans to build their own smartphone is going to have to be patient just a little while longer.