Google is one step closer to releasing the design for its Project Ara smartphone platform. The company has announced the first Module Developers Kit (MDK).
“This is a very early version, but our goals are to give the developer community an opportunity to provide feedback and input, and to help us ensure that the final MDK—anticipated at the end of 2014—is elegant, flexible and complete,” wrote Paul Eremenko, head of Project Ara, on the Advanced Technology and Project’s Google+ page.
The announcement of version 0.10 of the MDK comes ahead of schedule. Originally, Google announced the MDK wouldn’t be introduced until the Ara Developers Conference, April 15-16.
(Related: First SDK for Google’s Project Ara on the horizon)
“The smartphone is one of the most empowering and intimate objects in our lives. Yet most of us have little say in how the device is made, what it does, and how it looks,” according to the Project Ara website.
The MDK is a free and open platform specification that provides reference implementations for design features. Developers are expected to get a walkthrough of the MDK during next week’s conference.
The first Ara Developers Conference will be held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Only a limited number of developers will be able to attend, but an online live stream of the event will be available. Online attendees will also get the opportunity to ask questions.
More information about the developers’ conference and its agenda is available here.
