Project Ara, Googles modular smartphone collaboration with Phonebloks, has had its launch date pushed back.
The innovative design – which enables users to choose individual components for their handset and attach or remove them as desired – was meant to make its debut in Puerto Rico later this year.
However, the projects official Twitter account announced a “Market pilot re-route” late last week, adding “this is not goodbye Puerto Rico”. It has now confirmed that the devices release date will be pushed back into 2016, citing “lots of iterations… more than we thought”. 
Rather than trialling the device on the small Caribbean island, Google is “looking at a few locations in the US”, suggesting a shift in the Aras target market.
Whether it will maintain the originally planned method of distribution for the Ara – using food truck-style portable stores – hasnt been announced, but seems unlikely.
