How Google's Project Ara Will Open-up Innovation In Semiconductors

By _Arrow Devices Blog

April 17, 2014

Google's Project Ara will change the end user experience significantly. The question is, how will this technological disruption affect us all in the semiconductor industry? Read on to find out…

Google’s Project Ara will modularize phones, making them more like pieces of Lego that you can choose and assemble together. Google will provide the structural framework that holds these modules together. The frame will also include the switch to interconnect all the modules on the phone.

There will be far and wide implications of this “Lego-like” phone on users. Enthusiasts and early adopters in each professional field, will use this opportunity to build their own customized phones. Then will come the followers who will adopt and popularize the models created by the enthusiasts. Imagine this – a tech savvy heart surgeon will one day assemble a phone with modules that help him detect heart problems – he may attach a compact ECG monitor or a highly sensitive pulse rate sensor. Other surgeons would then follow him and assemble similar phones. The same story could repeat with biking enthusiasts, journalists, business consultants…the list can go on.

It is clear from the above discussion on how the end user gets impacted. But what about the semiconductor industry? What does this new generation of technology mean for us?