Making the Case for a Modular Display: Unlocking the Next Leap in Computing

[Garrett Kinsman]

Project ARA has me more excited than almost anybody.  It led me to San Francisco for Devcon one, and there I found a job. I spent the next two years working for a start up building the future of the Internet. The adventure has now led me to Bangalore India, it is 2016, and we are at the brink of actually getting an ARA device in hand.

Some said it wouldn't happen. I remember holding onto my OG Moto X, waiting for ARA to come out “next fall”. Now 4 phones later, ARA will hopefully be my next (okay maybe The oneplus 3, I need to get rid of my iPhone as India is  Android first).

Even now people doubt ARA saying “it's too expensive,” or “ARA isn't about upgradability anymore”. For the Dev device this fall they're probably right, but once economies of scale kick in for the production version, we’ll begin to see very interesting things happen. We have to keep I mind the Dev device will be a beta.  If Google can get the Endo cheap enough, Micro economies will begin to emerge, networks will begin to form, and ARA will slowly evolve from a smartphone into something completely new.

ARA production device. Hopefully it will be cheap enough to flood the developing world.

This is where I see one of ARAs pain points, something keeping ARA from evolving at maximum speed. Today there is no removable screen. Most users, and definitely myself will be destroying the screen within a few weeks. I've been through 5 iPhone screens and two android screens in the past three years alone. It was also one of the focus points of the Original Dev conference “break your screen and slide a new one in”. The Fairphone 2 includes a removable screen, and it drastically decreases the cost of a broken display. I'd love to see ARA become the next Moto G, the defacto stabdard for developing markets. The second reason is even more interesting:

Understandably for the first edition, compromises must be made. To keep cost down and focus on pure modularity, getting a product to market is key. Building an ecosystem is essential, and for the first integration The ARA team made a good call. But in order for ARA to completely revolutionize computing, I believe the screen has to go.

 As we've explored before, ARA is quickly becoming Much more than a smartphone. The screen keeps ARA firmly anchored in the past.  With a highly modular computing platform much more is possible than being a simple smartphone, and in my opinion the screen will not be required. 

Cube satellites don't need screens, neither do embedded control systems. Replace the screen and add a huge lithium battery with a power controller, now we have a hyper-intelligent solar charge controller for the developing world. ARA can become a platform for embedded sensors, something we're seeing Neqpaq explore. It could replace our desktop PCs. Remove the screen and replace a powerful MIMO patch antenna, now ARA becomes an extension of the Internet, or a satellite downlink for Googles OneWeb. 

ARA was once about enabling anyone build hardware. Today ARA is about enabling anyone to  build a smartphone, which is totally awesome, but I know in my heart so much more is possible. 

ARA can become the next giant leap in computing, and I only see the screen holding it back. 

Would  love to hear the communities' thoughts on the matter,