PhotoSAN FRANCISCO — Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is dropping plans to create a customizable, or modular, smartphone with interchangeable parts, two people briefed on the matter said Thursday. The decision to shelve the effort known as Project Ara comes after the company announced plans in May to release an early version of the product for developers in the fall. The idea of a customizable phone generated a lot of excitement, because it offered the promise of extending a product’s life with replaceable parts such as a new screen or battery. Google had planned to begin offering the phone in a test program in Puerto Rico last year, but it canceled the rollout. It was part of Google Advanced Technology and Projects, known internally as ATAP, a group headed by Regina Dugan, the former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Source: New York Times September 02, 2016 06:00 UTC