Google's modular smartphone project sacrificed its original vision to move forward

Google's Project Ara modular smartphone is coming to developers soon, but it's lost a key part of its customization vision along the way. 

Developers will be able to get their hands on an early release version of Ara by the end of this year, to begin building custom hardware modules for the device, Google announced at its I/O conference Friday. The modules will allow users to customize their phones with hardware like cameras, speakers and even a rear-facing display.

Ara's initial philosophy was to serve as a wholly modular smartphone, which would allow users to customize all of the phone's components, including its processor, battery, network connectivity and screen. Now, many of those components will be integrated into the Ara "frame," which will still retain space for some customization. 

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