The Google-owned mobile phone company Motorola have announced plans to launch a project 
that allows users to customise their phones.
The venture, named Project Ara, allows customers to buy standard smartphones and add personalised features such as screens, battery, keyboards and other sensors.
Many critics are unsure of how necessary a customisable phone would be in the current market, considering there is already such a huge range of mobile phones available to every type of customer. However, in a recent blog post Motorola said that their year-long project will shake up the industry and allow customers to own exactly the right device for them.
The firm, as written in their blog post, claims that the project will “give you the power to decide what your phone does, how it looks, where and what it’s made of, how much it costs and how long you’ll keep it.”
Interchangeable features, or modules as the brand describes them, can apply to anything from a new keyboard, display, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter, or even something that is yet to be thought of. Developers are yet to be invited to design and create the various modules.
Motorola has teamed up Dave Hakkens maker of Phonebloks to continue the project, which has gained a great deal of interest in the last couple of months. However critics question the value of the project, as Ben Wood from CCS Insight raises concerns over the challenge of delivering such a device commercially. According to the mobile expert, consumers want to purchase small, attractive devices but a modular design would make this particularly difficult.
