[General Topics] jacobgong:
No matter how I think about it, still makes no sense. I still think people who are working on this are either seriously mistaken, or intentionally participating in a scam for development funding.

Modularity Overhead, Physical Size

This is the number 1 huge in your face problem they have to deal with, and people don't seem to be taking this seriously enough. The guy at the conference bragged about "25%" overhead, which already seems impossibly small. But even if it were true, it still wouldn't be small enough. Simple question, would you buy a Galaxy S5 that's 25% heavier and 25% thicker and 25% larger around the edges? You would not! Because no smartphone is that big! It's enormous! And it'll be over 10mm thick! Who the **** buys a 10m+ thick phone now days?

The latest prototype they have now has about 100% overhead in volume.

"Benefits" to a Modular Phone

Simply put, it does not exist, period. Remember your last phone? Why did you upgrade to the new Droid Turbo? Because it has the Snapdragon 805 chip? Or because it has a 2k screen? Or was it the camera? Or maybe? ALL OF THEM? The ASSUMPTION in the original phone block video, that people upgrade or swap phones because of a single component is simply false! Because

Firstly, modern phones are so incredibly reliable that none of the components ever get broken except the screen.

Secondly, you can replace your screen for possibly cheaper than it would cost to buy a new Ara screen module!

Thirdly, It would be stupid to put a 2k screen on your Ara phone with Snapdragon 400 SoC because it will lag this **** out of you. And who is ever going to upgrade from a 720p screen to another 720p screen?

Forthly, It's equally stupid to put a 20MP camera on your phone with Tegra 3 SoC because it doesn't support 20MP cameras! And even if it did you don't want a laggy ass camera experience do you? And neither do you want to viewfind a 20MP camera with your WVGA screen!

So, the assumptions that people would want to swap out modules, and the assumption that people change phones because a single component has failed, are BOTH FALSE! But sadly these are what the Ara project is entirely based on!

Other problems

How the **** are you going to build a centralised communications board that supports the bandwidth requirements of components even a year in the future? Without itself being ultra futuristic and expensive from the start? Because you don't want it to bottleneck your camera for 4K recording. Or you new 2k screen. Or your ultra fast LTE Cat-6 modem.

One of the biggest reasons people want to change phones is battery life. How the **** are you going to fit bigger batteries without it bulging out at a random corner and make the phone difficult to balance on your hand and a million times more ugly than the extruding camera on the iPhone 6? Because the grid is fixed and has a super small slot for the battery?

Another big reason people change phones is screen size. Well no luck here because you can't change screen size. So you can maybe change to a marginally better screen at the cost of a hundred dollars or more.

Drop the phone and have your components scatter all over the place. Or have a back cover to further increase thickness. But oh wait, you can't have a back cover because some of your components like the high end camera and big battery are bulging out in a CUSTOMISED and UNIQUELY YOURS way that you can't find a suitable back cover. Maybe you can try duck tape?

Target Market

Who is the target consumer of this device? People who don't already have a smartphone you said? How about they but a Chinese smartphone for $100 that will work just fine until the screen is smashed and have it replaced for $10? Rather than spending $200 on a mid-high range piece of **** like this and loose components because they fell off into the gutter on the side of the street? I mean these high precision engineering aren't cheap, and the end result can't be cheap either!

Maybe enthusiasts just like people who build their own PCs? Yeah good luck with the fixed screen size! What about the Galaxy S6 which is cheaper (because no need for the electro magnet and extra systems like central skeleton), thinner lighter smaller, with bigger screen and bigger battery? Now don't tell me you can swap out the GPU on your project Ara phone! As a PC gamer myself I don't even swap parts on my PC that often. Except the storage (*cough* micro SD card), and the graphics card.

Or maybe people who don't really care how their phone worked, as long as it does? Regular consumers? Like iPhone users? Yea right!

Sorry for long post. But I just don't get it.