After years of development in Google's ATAP research labs, it looks like Project Ara is ready to hit the masses. Google has revealed to WIRED that Project Ara is now a standalone part of Google and the division will be header by ex-Motorola CEO, Rick Osterloh.

In case you are unfamiliar with Google's Project Ara. It is basically an implementation of a modular smartphone designed by Google and supported by a wide range of hardware partners. Last year, Google did a market test of their Spiral 3 prototype in Puerto Rico and it looks like everything worked well as they are finally putting a release data on the modular phone.

Officially known as Ara without the 'Project', Google's modular phone will begin shipping to developers in Fall 2016 and consumers can begin to pick up Ara in 2017. No word on pricing, specifications and market availability yet but we'll be hearing more about that by the end of the year.

In the mean time, head over to the source link to read more about the current state of Project Ara.


ORIGINAL SOURCE: WIRED