The Death of Project Ara Shows Google Is All Grown Up

As Reuters reported last week, Google has suspended—and possibly killed—its plan to make a modular smartphone with interchangeable components. The move is curious—especially considering that in May at its annual I/O conference, the company restarted its Ara hype after more than a year of silence, loudly proclaiming that about 30 people inside the company’s Advanced Technologies and Projects lab, or ATAP, were using Ara as their primary phone. But at the same time, the move isn’t surprising.