Google to Reveal Project Ara Modular Phone Progress in January

Google has announced the dates and locations of the second Project Ara Module Developers Conference and has also revealed the primary focus of the event. Additionally, official Project Ara forum Phonebloks has shared YouTube video that shows the progress of the Ara prototype phone thus far.

Announcing the next Developers Conference, Paul Eremenko, Head of Project Ara, in a Google+ post says, "The first event will be on January 14, 2015, with a central site in Mountain View and satellite locations at Google offices in New York City, Buenos Aires, and London. We will then repeat the same agenda for our developer friends in Asia a week later, on January 21, 2015. This second event will be in Singapore, with satellite locations at Google offices in Bangalore, Tokyo, Taipei, and Shanghai."

The company also announced a registration deadline of November 26 for developers, and said it will extend an invitation after which a developer has to submit a registration fee of $25-$200 (roughly Rs. 1,500-12,300). Google confirmed that the event will see the release of the Ara Module Developers Kit (MDK) version 0.20. Notably, the Mountain View giant released the first Project Ara Module Developers Kit (MDK) version 0.10 back in April. Eremenko revealed that the Ara team will be highlighting some of the major changes and advances in the MDK version 0.20.

He also confirmed that the latest Project Ara prototype will be demoed alongside the developer hardware. The new hardware, codenamed Spiral 2, features much less space taken up by components that hold the modules, as detailed in the video by Phonebloks. The video also shows a Project Ara prototype smartphone booting up. Seeing the video, the Ara prototype phone is seen running a dated Android version, possibly Jelly Bean (going by theme and icons).

Eremenko added, "We will highlight some ongoing module development efforts from select developers. And we will share early plans for a market pilot in 2015." How this fits alongside the January 2015 launch date for the first Project Ara phone, said to cost $50 (roughly Rs. 3,100), announced by Eremenko back in April, remains to be seen.