Google, LG and Motorola are taking a punt away from the closed systems popularised by Apple, emphasising customisation instead with experimental, modular designs.

Each has a slightly different approach, but the concept is the same: you can either buy a basic phone, or you can buy extra bling to add to or enhance its look and/or functionality.

Think top-end microphones for journalists or musicians; superior lenses for photography enthusiasts; glucose testings kit for diabetics; or a secret compartment for storing pills or make-up. Maybe fitness features are more your thing – how about a serious location tracker and heart monitor?

So long as third parties are allowed to create hardware, the sky's the limit for niche customisation.

Google this week revived its slow-burning Project Ara in spectacular fashion, announcing the modular concept phone will ship to developers within months, with a consumer version ready for the masses as soon as next year.

Motorola is tipped to unveil two new flagship Moto X smartphones, with six swappable modules, within weeks.

Both follow the launch of LG's latest flagship phone, the G5 – first off the mark among big brands going modular, albeit with room for improvement.

Project Ara

A long time coming, Google's approach to modular phones is easily the most ambitious.

The tech giant purchased Project Ara from Motorola back in 2013, and prototypes of the phone surfaced in 2014 and 2015.

Then the project appeared to stall, after a planned market test in Puerto Rico never eventuated. Google went back to the drawing board, winding back its initial vision of a fully customisable device – including the ability to switch basic hardware such as processors – in favour of a more consumer-friendly model. (Turns out most people don't want to think about the chipset inside their phone.)

Google has squashed initial bugs, and this week it flaunted working prototypes of the revised device at its I/O developers' conference. About 30 staff are now using the modular phones every day, according to Wired.

The wait may well be worth it. While LG was first off the mark with its G5, what Google unveiled this week – if it lives up to its promise – is in a different league.

Blaise Bertrand, the creative head of Google's Advanced Technology and Projects department, said when the consumer version of Ara finally arrives next year: "It will be thin. It will be light. It will be beautiful."

The Ara's basic "endoskeleton" will have all the basics pre-installed – chips, antenna, sensors, battery and screen – with users able to snap out and switch six external panels for whichever extra modules (sold separately) might tickle their fancy. Switching out modules is as simple as tapping a command in an app which talks to the hardware – or simply asking "OK Google" to do it for you.

Physically, the device looks promising: Google is using durable latches, connectors and electro-permanent magnets to make sure the modules can withstand plenty of hands-on action while still being easy to move.

The likes of Panasonic, TDK, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony Pictures and various health tech brands are already lining up to develop custom modules for the device.

Google will build the basic blocks of the phone itself, however, in a shift from its previous Nexus smartphones, which have been built by third parties including LG and Huawei.

According to CNET, Google also plans to launch an online store and marketplace, where users will be able to buy, swap and sell certified parts.

We don't have price details yet for the phone, although one can expect a premium price tag to match its premium specs.

Risky business

There's a definite environmental upside to being able to upgrade smartphone parts as needed, rather than simply replacing the whole phone every few years.

But whether consumers (or indeed telcos, which are equally wedded to the two-year handset upgrade cycle as manufacturers) will warm to such disruption remains to be seen.

Foad Fadaghi, managing director at technology research firm Telsyte, is sceptical the concept will take off anytime soon, arguing most consumers prefer to buy a complete product from the outset.

"The whole approach to computing has gone down a path of simplification," Fadaghi says.

"The people who build custom PCs today are simply gamers or enthusiasts [so] it's unlikely a component approach [to smartphones] will appeal to a mass audience."

But he says smartphone pioneers like Nokia and Blackberry did have success popularising new concepts with some persistence.