Finland’s PuzzlePhone is looking crowdfunding to bring the modular smartphone to the market, but the truth is, it’s a stolen idea from Google’s Project Ara. The Project, which started as an idea back until Google and Motorola snatched Dave Hakken and started building what was then called Phonebloks.
PuzzlePhone is looking to profit off of the hype of idea by taking to crowd funding websites. The feud is not new, the PuzzlePhone has tried to bank on Project Ara’s buzz since last year. The differences between the idea interpretations is that, while Project Ara plans to make phones out of interchangeable parts, the PuzzlePhone is more simplistic: it has an interchangeable ‘heart’, ‘spine’ and ‘brain’. The heart is the phone’s battery, the brain is the CPU, GPU, RAM and internal storage, and the spine is the display, speakers and microphone. It’s designed to be sturdy and built from eco-friendly materials. The phone is set to cost around $333 and it’ll hopefully come with the Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS.
Just based on initial execution, the PuzzlePhone misses the point of the idea. Having every part be not only replaceable but customizable gives Project Ara a better approach and more appeal. Not to mention that by partnering up with Motorola, who provides most parts for the iPhone, it’s guaranteed to be a durable phone that doesn’t sacrifice class for hype.
Project Ara is set to roll out as of 2016, and if the PuzzlePhone reaches its goal, it’ll be hitting donors’s doors the same year.
