Did Motorola Steal Phonebloks' Thunder By Unveiling The Ara Phone?

Yesterday we featured the Phonebloks concept by Dave Hakkens and people seemed to really enjoy this new way of putting together your own smartphone, but there was one thing that stood out about the second video that Dave recently put up on his YouTube channel called “The Next Step”. A piece of the video was dedicated to Motorola’s secret concept called the Ara phone. Frankly, we here at Bit Rebels were surprised that more blogs didn’t pick up on it.

Did Motorola steal the thunder from within Phonebloks own video? Today the news is riddled with pictures and thoughts about the Ara phone and the Phonebloks concept is kind of getting a page in yesterday’s newspaper, if you know what I mean.

The Phonebloks concept is definitely an innovative one that should be realized, but currently Motorola’s Ara phone (who is owned by Google) has gained an insane amount of media spotlight by the simple mention of it in the same breath as the Phonebloks phone. Is this a strategic play by Motorola or is it, in fact, a legit collaboration between the two?

I think the question in itself is a little dimming. Will the Phonebloks phone suddenly turn into the Ara phone making innovative minds like Dave feel like they actually had an input or, in fact, the concept had been planned by Motorola for a very long time? It would definitely be in the industry’s best interest that Dave and Motorola really do collaborate on making a joint concept phone, no matter what the modular phone may be named when finished.

It definitely shows that Dave has an entrepreneurial mind by keeping the Phonebloks concept separate from the Ara phone. The one question we should ask ourselves is whether Motorola and Dave’s possible collaboration will hurt or actually gain the Phonebloks phone’s chance at success in the end. The Ara phone concept looks less impressive than the Phonebloks concept, and I personally think that is where Dave has the advantage. We here at Bit Rebels can’t wait to see what will become of both of these concept phones. Is the future all about modular devices? Only time will tell.