After Delays and Feature Reductions, Google Finally Puts Project Ara Out of Its Misery.

After delays and missed promises, it looks like Google’s dream of building its modular phone might finally be dead. A new report says that Google is attempting to streamline its newly created hardware division, and Project Ara has been slated to be cancelled, despite Google’s announcements on the matter from just three months ago.

At Google I/O in May, Google announced hardware partners and promised a developer version of the Project Ara phone coming this fall. But, with fall slated to start in just a few weeks and the latest rumors claiming Google will announce two Pixel phones on October 4th, word has it that Google has cancelled its plans to release a Project Ara phone.

In a strange wrinkle to the story, Google might not be abandoning the idea entirely, though. Supposedly, Google might still work with hardware partners to bring Project Ara tech to market. Google had reportedly wanted to have the modular device work for more than just phones and be a part of the Internet of Things revolution, so it would make sense that Google could license the tech and try to help others bring it to market. However, without an actual phone from Google to push the tech, it’s hard to say how likely it will be to survive.

The quote about “streamlining the company’s hardware efforts” points to Google’s new hardware division as being behind the change in strategy. The division, with former Motorola President Rick Osterloh at the helm, has been tasked with combining Google’s hardware efforts into a single portfolio. With the recent news that the Nexus line is going away in favor of “Pixel Phones” and the death of Ara, Google might finally be ditching the “Make two of everything” reputation—at least when it comes to hardware.

If it’s launched by Google then these can be the specification of Google’s Project Ara