内在缺陷迫使谷歌放弃模块化手机项目

路透社本周报道称，谷歌已经终止了开发模块化智能手机的项目Project Ara。凭借光滑漂亮的技术模型，以及升级单独手机组件或在特定用途下替换手机组件的可能性，Ara引发了许多科技观察者的设想。尽管谷歌尚未对终止项目一事做出评价，但我们可以通过一些迹象推测背后的原因。

考虑到谷歌在三个月前还宣布计划在2016年底推出Ara的开发工具，并将于2017年推出商用产品，这次终止项目的举动多少有些令人惊讶。据路透社的消息源透露，这次终止项目，是由于公司硬件生产部门的大范围改革所致。

不过Ara自身也面临着挑战，它存在着一定缺陷。谷歌本计划于去年在波多黎各进行首次公开的实机展示，最后却因故跳票。随后，一些原定的功能因为太难实现，在项目中被取消。而Ara项目的主管也于去年离职。

从根本上说，Ara的夭折可能是其基础概念中无法克服的缺陷所致。据Decode报道，把手机拆成许多部件，会减慢它们彼此之间的通讯速度，还会减少电池寿命，增加制造成本。

Ara的夭折也凸显了开发手机的谷歌Advanced Technology and Projects团队未来存在的问题。在摩托罗拉创立ATAP（并入谷歌之前）的里贾纳·杜根就在5月宣布将对Ara进行实机展示之前的几周离职去了Facebook。

杜根领导下的ATAP，曾被认为是介于传统产品开发部门和Alphabet “大项目工厂” X之间的存在。X中拥有雄心勃勃的研究项目，例如无人驾驶汽车和Loon Wi-fi气球。根据《纽约时报》的描述，X面临着研发畅销产品，而不只是进行科学实验的压力，Ara可能也是类似情况的受害者。

实际上，从许多方面看，Ara项目的夭折都会让人联想起X部门的一款特别的产品——谷歌眼镜。谷歌眼镜曾被认为是移动计算领域的一次彻底的重新思考。谷歌曾在2013年推出过限定功能的商业版本眼镜。但在之后引人注目而又充满争议的不到两年中，它陷入了沉睡。从本质上说，这是一次引人深思的失败。

砍掉Ara之后，谷歌可能会避免类似的情况再次出现。对于之前几乎从未显露出害怕情绪的公司来说，这是风格偏向谨慎的一次明显转变。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

It was uncovered this week by Reuters that Google has discontinued Project Ara, its effort to build a modular smartphone. Ara captured many tech watchers’ imaginations with slick prototypes and the possibility of upgrading individual phone components, or swapping out phone components for particular applications. Though Google hasn’t commented, there are some hints about just what led to the decision.

The cancellation is a somewhat surprising reversal, given that it was announced just three months ago that Ara developer kits would ship in late 2016, and a commercial product would arrive in 2017. According to Reuters’ sources, the cancellation is part of a broader streamlining of the company’s hardware production.

But there were also challenges and shortfalls specific to Ara. Its initial rollout, planned for last year in Puerto Rico, was delayed. Following that stall, some planned features that turned out to be too challenging to execute were stripped from the project. Ara also lost its director last year.

Ara may ultimately have been a victim of insurmountable flaws with its underlying concept. As detailed by Recode, separating a phone into components threatened to slow communication between them, while also sapping battery life and making phones more expensive.

Ara’s cancellation highlights questions about the future of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, which was developing the phone. Regina Dugan, who created ATAP at Motorola before it was folded into Google, left for Facebook just a few weeks before the May announcement of Ara’s now-scuttled rollout.

ATAP under Dugan could have been described as something between a conventional product development unit and Alphabet’s “Moonshot Factory,” X. X is behind ambitious research projects like self-driving cars and Loon wi-fi balloons. As described by the New York Times, X is facing some pressure to produce marketable products, not just science experiments, and Ara may have been the victim of similar pressure.

In fact, the Ara shutdown is in many ways reminiscent of one particular X project—Google Glass. Glass, pitched as a rethinking of mobile computing from the ground up, had a limited commercial release in 2013. But it went into hibernation less than two splashy and controversial years later, essentially a very thought-provoking failure.

By pulling Ara, Google may have avoided something similar – an apparent turn to the cautious for a company that has rarely shown fear.