After the Apple Watch, all eyes in the tech world will be watching Puerto Rico

By Gonzalo López Martí   –  LMMIAMI.COM

• It’s good to know that every now and then we Latinos can attract attention in fields other than sports, ethnic music, surgically enhanced beauty queens, autocracy and organized crime.
• Welcome to La isla del encanto, the as of late bankrupt yet demographically, geographically and politically unique state chosen by none other than Google to be the global trial market spearheading the roll-out of its revolutionary Project ARA.
• Why Puerto Rico? Well, because it is a perfect microcosm of ethnically diverse, pretty bilingual early adopters & bargain hunters with a sweet tooth for tech.
• What is Project ARA? It’s an initiative lead by Google aimed at democratizing the way we use our smartphones, in a world in which Apple and Samsung increasingly seem to be transforming into luxury-goods brands.
• Who will win?
• Who should win?
• Let’s see.
• Project ARA mobile devices will be assembled in interchangeable modules or blocks.
• The user will be able to add or remove the modules at will.
• On a whim, without even turning the handset off.
• Roughly the size of a domino chip, each module will add a specific functionality to the device.
• Users will be able to replace them in seconds flat, anytime, anywhere.
• You’d rather carry a phone with, say, three long-lasting batteries, a credit card reader and no camera? You got it.
• D’you want to add extra powerful speakers to turn it into a boombox? Sure.
• You are diabetic and you need to incorporate to your smartphone a device that measures sugar in your bloodstream? Bingo.
• D’you want to replace all of the above at will and buy or sell parts in an aftermarket? Go ahead.
• The possibilities are endless.
• Just like the ever-growing inventory of apps at Apple’s App Store or Android’s Play.
• The premise is simple: the mobile monopolies are giving us bundled devices that leave little to no choice.
• There’s got to be a better way to manufacture and market the growing amount of trinkets and shiny objects we use in our daily lives.
• Apple and Samsung make their obscene profits by forcing you to pay north of six hundred bucks for an all-in-one gadget with features you might never use or need.
• Plus, when & if your device’s camera cracks or its memory becomes full, the entire contraption ends up in the trash.
• No wonder the world’s landfills are full of potentially hazardous and in most cases still partially functional cell phones.
• Project ARA’s Lego-like modular smartphone will torpedo this logic in its floatation line.
• No need to by a new phone if you just want a better camera or if the battery is failing.
• Just replace the part.
• Moreover, a myriad niche manufactures will be able to join the party, besieging the usual suspects & monopolists from all imaginable flanks.
• We will be able to buy our smartphones piecemeal from multiple specialists as opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach imposed upon us by the big dinosaurs in the mobile racket.
• Possibly at a third of the prices you are paying today for leading-brand phones like Apple & Samsung.
• Rest assured: this does not mean you should sacrifice quality.
• Quite the contrary.
• In a not too distant future your mobile device will have Bose or Harman Kardon speakers, a Canon or Nikon camera and so on.
• Category leaders doing what they do better than anyone else.
• Needless to say, Google has not enlisted any of the major phone behemoths to bring Project ARA to life.
• Maybe because they got burned big time when they bought Motorola (which they swiftly flipped over to Lenovo, once they allegedly stripped it off some strategic patents & ultra secret technologies).
• For Project ARA, Google has instead approached smaller, nimbler, more vibrant manufacturers with the right expertise to design and build affordable hardware to cater to fast-growing emerging markets.
• Like Miami-based, Hispanic owned & operated DDM Brands.
• The reasons for Google approaching DDM and the like appear to be that the Mountain View juggernaut sees enormous potential for Project ARA in Asia, Latin America & Africa.
• And the DDM Brands of this world, through its ultracompetitive brands such as Yezz, are ideally positioned to play in that field.
• The first Yezz ARA protoypes were on display at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week.
• Although they will never admit it, the big players in the rarefied atmosphere of the tech industry were in shock.
• So now you know.
• Forget the overpriced & overhyped Apple watch: come October, all eyes in the wide world of gadgetry will be trained at Boricualand.
• Stay tuned.