Alphabet Ends Effort to Create Modular Smartphone - The New York Times

In other Google phone speculation, see Google's Nexus phone successors may be called Pixel and Pixel XL (The Verge); tangentially, see Motorola’s modular phone concept just got even more fun, but remains a tough sell (Recode)

"The idea of a customizable phone generated a lot of excitement, because it offered the promise of extending a product’s life with replaceable parts such as a new screen or battery. But it proved difficult to execute and move beyond prototypes. Google had planned to begin offering the phone in a test program in Puerto Rico last year, but it canceled the rollout.

The project also suffered from some organizational upheaval. It was part of Google Advanced Technology and Projects, known internally as ATAP, a group headed by Regina Dugan, the former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Ms. Dugan left Google to spearhead a similar group at Facebook."

Alphabet Ends Effort to Create Modular Smartphone - The New York Times