Prepared to print your phones?

Soon after the launch of the new iPhone 5c was panned by critics (for perhaps the fourth time), something interesting happened.

For the first time, people actually stopped buying the device. Experts have come up with myriad reasons for the lacklustre performance of the 5c -the phone made the iconic iPhone available to people at a high price and a limited degree of customisability (users were able to pick from a range of colours, reminiscent of Nokia's hit Lumia series).

After its acquisition by Google, Motorola has started building an entire ecosystem of highly customisable phones as opposed to Apple's gold standard approach towards a stable user experience. Not only this, the hardware platform is going to be open source allowing third parties to design upgrades.

Project ARA is one of the most impressive ideas in consumer technology as of today. The A d v a n c e d Research labs at Motorola are devel oping a highly modular smartphone ecosystem that will allow users to plug and unplug components from their device.

To many, this idea may seem reminiscent of a startup called Phonebloks and, indeed, Motorola has partnered with David Hakken, the Dutch designer behind the PhoneBloks.

Motorola has also signed a contract with 3D Systems, the company behind the world’s first 3D printer. The company has been tasked with the development of a high speed production platform that includes conductive and functional materials.

At the outset, the potential uses for such a platform are myriad. It’s possible that Google/Motorola intends to allow users to fully design a phone online and place an order, it will be printed out and shipped to the buyer right off the production line.

It sounds too ambitious, too disruptive to work, but that’s been a common theme to all of Google’s success stories. And it’s refreshing to watch the software giant bring its waves of disruption to the hardware world as well..

We’ll just have to wait and watch to find out what happens next.

Goo gle/Motorola intends to allow users to fully design a phone online and place an order, it will be printed out and shipped to the buyer right off the production line.
It sounds too ambitious, too disruptive to work, but that's been a common theme to all of Google's success stories. And it's refreshing to watch the software giant bring its waves of disruption to the hardware world as well..

We'll just have to wait and watch to find out what happens next.