The concept of a modular smartphones, which started under PhoneBloks, was made into a reality when Motorola started working on an initiative called as 'Project Ara' while it was still under Google. Even though Motorola was later acquired by Lenovo, Google kept Project Ara to themselves.
Project Ara will, in the future, help consumers in upgrading certain parts of the device rather than buying a new device every couple of years. Now, we have a video of the first live Project Ara based modular smartphone prototype, which is being developed by NK Technologies.
NK Technologies is one of many partners working with Google to convert Project Ara initiative in to a reality. The smartphone shown in the video is called as the 'Spiral 1'. As explained in the video, nearly 50 percent of the device area is occupied by components which makes it possible to make the smartphone into a modular device.
Apparently, Toshiba is making custom chips for 'Spiral 2' so that developers get more area to fit the actual modular parts into the frame. Spiral 2 will be showcased starting January 2015.