7 reasons why modular smartphones are such a nightmare to develop

Anyone who thinks modular smartphones are a cool concept was dispirited last week when Google postponed tests of its Project Ara until next year. But developing such devices is particularly challenging, because of issues with size, performance and price.

Here are the top seven reasons why it's so difficult to develop smartphones that let users swap out the processor, camera and storage options:

Architecture

The biggest technical challenge to building a modular smartphone is the underlying architecture, the structural frame and data backbone of the device, which makes it possible for all the modules to communicate with each other. It has to be so efficient that the overall performance doesn't take a hit and still be frugal with power consumption.  

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