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It is a nightmare we have all face - a cracked screen that means a long wait for a replacement.

However, Google has unveiled a new 'modular' handset that allows users to simply slot in new modules - including the screen - themselves.

It plans to launch the radical handset, which allows users to add everything from an extra battery to a thermometer, in Puerto Rico this year.

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Google plans to have dozens of modules available for the handset, allowing users to customeise every aspect of it

The company will partner with Mexico-based carrier Claro and local carrier Open Mobile as part of a pilot program that will allow people to choose their own hardware based on their needs and interests.

It will be sold from free-standing stores that look like food trucks, said Jessica Beavers, a Google marketing executive.

She said Puerto Rico was chosen in part because more than 90 percent of households on the island of nearly 3.7 million people use a cellphone and 77 percent of Internet access occurs through mobile devices.

'All of this makes for a truly interesting carrier landscape,' she said at a module developers conference at Google's headquarters in California. 'Mobile devices are a huge part of daily life' in Puerto Rico.

The pilot program is still being developed, but Beavers said she envisions stores first opening in the capital of San Juan, followed by Ponce, the island's second largest city. Stores would eventually open in other cities.

Google would manufacture and sell the phone frame as well as modules created by individual manufacturers that can be added to it like Legos. 

Modules would range from a screen to a camera to speakers to even a pedometer, depending on people's needs.

'We want people to walk away and say, 'That was really freaking awesome,'' Beavers said.

Google says it's too early to say how much the phone could cost, but it might be in the $50 to $100 range.

Google says the handset will allow users to replace their own screen in seconds ashould they break it

The company has had success with its Chromebook computers, which are lightweight, low-priced laptops that require Internet connections to access most programs and other features, but it relies on outside manufacturers for the product. 

It has had more difficulty selling devices it makes on its own. 

Google Glass, its Internet-connected eyewear, still hasn't made it to the mass market more than two years after its release to developers and a digital media player called the Nexus Q was scrapped within a few months of its unveiling in 2012.

Rafael Leon, a Radio Shack employee in San Juan, said he expects many Puerto Ricans to embrace the modular phone, noting that they are always eager to buy the newest mobile devices and don't mind standing in long lines.

'They always want to be ahead with what's newest, with what's innovative,' he said, adding that despite the island's long economic slump, cellphone sales have always been good. 'You tell them it costs $800 and they're not fazed.'

Others took a more reserved stance.

Carl Lizarraga, a San Juan engineer, said he was surprised by the announcement.

'Typically, the island isn't used as a testing ground for this sort of project,' he said. 'I'm not planning on buying it yet as at this point it seems more a gimmick than anything else. When the idea is further developed and able to compete with the current flagships, I would consider it.'

New modules are simply clicked into the frame of the handset

Google has even shown off a 'night vision' module for the phone

Giancarlo Gonzalez, chief information officer for Puerto Rico's government, said in a phone interview from Google's headquarters that the company approached him and other officials in mid-2014 with their proposal.

He said he hopes the pilot program grows into something bigger that will allow programmers in Puerto Rico to develop modules and export them.

'It would represent great technological growth,' he said. 

Paul Eremenko, the head of Project Ara, said 'The design must overcome the connotations of boxiness and brick-like that people associate with modularity,' he said.

Google is working with New Deal Design on the project. 

The back of the Ara handset allows modules to be quickly removed and replaced. Speakers, cameras, lights, batteries and fitness sensors can all be put on the phone when needed - then simply removed.

The prototype handset, which Google showed off for the first time this week - although it failed to load fully.

'It's called the Grey Phone because it's meant to be drab grey to get people to customise it,' Mr Eremenko said.

The phones will be able run on multiple batteries - when one battery dies, it can be detached and replaced with a full battery module.

Lower-resolution cameras can be swapped with higher-res versions, and users will be also be able to 3D print replacement parts.

By printing their own parts, users will also be able to customise them.

Google has revealed each phone will have a central 'spine' and an endoskeleton - nicknamed 'endo' - made of ribs that the individual modules will clip on to.

Google's much-anticipated modular smartphone could be available in January 2015 for as little as $50 (£30)

There will be three different sized endos - including mini, medium and large - to rival the existing range of phones currently on the market, from compacts to phablets.

Larger Grey Phones will be able to accommodate more modules than the mini will, for example.

Google's kit describes various modules including batteries, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, cameras, speakers and more.

In theory, any sensor that can be fitted to a module will be able to attach to a device, and while Google will make the shell, these modules will be made by other companies.

One of the proposed final designs for the project. Each module clips in and out depending on what feature the user wants.

At the developer conference, Google outlined a time frame for development for the modular device, attempting to attract hardware and software developers.

The main frame of the Grey Phone will be built to last around five to six years, according to Mr Eremenko, allowing users to upgrade their phones regularly.

He added that the basic framework can be used to build any number of devices, beyond a simple smartphone.

'If it can be other things, we encourage that,' Mr Eremenko said but added that Google intends Ara to be 'ultimately a great smartphone first and foremost'.

Project Ara was developed as a result of Google's purchase of Motorola and its Advanced Technology and Projects group.

It is based on the Phonebloks designs by Dutch inventor Dave Hakkens.

It was initially assigned to Motorola, and had been planned to add to the firm's existing range, but Google sold the phone maker to Lenovo in January.