It’s not been a good few days to be one of Google’s hardware projects, with not just one but two of them being canned for good. One of them was still in the early days of becoming a shipping product, whilst the other had received critical acclaim following its release in 2015.

The first on the chopping block was the Chromebook Pixel. Originally released in February of 2015, the Chromebook Pixel was allowed to sell out, with inventory now exhausted both within Google and Best Buy stores.

The Chromebook Pixel actually comprised of two different models – one for $999, which was discontinued in April, and another which sold for an additional $300, dubbed the Chromebook Pixel LS. Neither are now available, and it appears the Chromebook Pixel is no more. With the death of the Pixel, Google now no longer sells a laptop computing device.

Google’s Project Ara today joined the Chromebook Pixel on Google’s high-tech scrapheap. After more than three years of promising development, Google’s Project Ara is now dead after what we all thought may prove to be one of the most interesting of Google’s projects failed to materialize.

Project Ara was essentially a modular smartphone, allowing each individual aspect of the handset to be swapped out, with Google believing that allowed for extra flexibility and additional ease of repair. Always ambitious and perhaps never likely to turn into something we would be able to buy in stores, Project Ara was what makes Google so great, and it’s a shame to see it go. Having said that, however, if Project Ara’s demise allows Google to spend precious resources on something more likely to impact our lives, then we’re all for it!

With so much always going on inside Google, we can only imagine what other things the company, and it’s super-clever employees are up to now that Project Ara and the Chromebook Pixel are no longer around.

(Source: Redmondpie.com)