Google delays its Project Ara modular smartphone until 2016

Google is pushing back plans to release its deeply customizable Project Ara smartphone hardware until sometime in 2016. The Ara team today tweeted a message acknowledging the delay and shift away from plans to test out the modular phone project in Puerto Rico later this year. But Google was also quick to note that it’s in the process of scouting “a few locations in the US” for Ara. Google’s explanation for the change suggests that the team has been hard at work to make Ara a reality. “Lots of iterations... more than we thought,” the company tweeted.

Project Ara allows users to swap out and upgrade the core components of a smartphone (processor, camera, etc.) individually rather than replace the whole device. It represents a dramatic rethinking of the mobile phone, and attendees at Google I/O were thrilled when the company showed a working prototype on stage in May. The progression to a consumer product seems to be taking a bit longer than anticipated, however. Google had originally aimed to have between 20 and 30 Ara modules available for the now-scrapped Puerto Rico pilot.