Project Ara smartphone coming in early 2015, runs on modified Android L

As anticipated earlier, Google’s modular smartphone initiative Project Ara is ready to be available to the mass market in early 2015, revealed Ara head Paul Eremenko at Linaro Connect USA 2014 recently. He noted that the first fully functional prototype of Project Ara will be showcased the second Ara developer conference in December.

Paul also stated that the first Ara smartphone will run on a customised version of Android L, which has made the hot-swapping of the smartphone modules possible. According to him, the consumers will be able to hot-swap every smartphone component apart from the CPU and display.

The components will be sold via an online store, similar to Google Play, where the consumers will be able to get the modules of their choice and then fit it in their smartphone Endo (endoskeleton). To remind you, Endo is the barebones form of a Project Ara smartphone – A basic aluminum frame that contains a bit of networking circuitry so the smartphone modules can talk to each other and includes a small back-up battery. The Project Ara consumers will basically be buying an Endo and the modules of their choice to put in it.