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AMAZON UNVEILED ITS “Fire Phone,” a high-end handset boasting ‘breakthrough technologies,” which enters a crowded market dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unveiled the device, Amazon’s first smartphone of its own, which has a 4.7-inch display, a high-definition camera and Amazon’s free help service.
The phone also ties in to Amazon’s vast array of other offerings, serving as a platform for digital content such as books, films and music and connecting users to the firm’s cloud storage.
“Fire Phone puts everything you love about Amazon in the palm of your hand – instant access to Amazon’s vast content ecosystem” said Bezos.
The handset has what Bezos called a “dynamic” display which shows images in three dimensions, and a scanner which recognizes products for sale and a variety of other objects such as artworks.
Amazon described these features as “two new breakthrough technologies that allow you to see and interact with the world through a whole new lens.”
The so-called “dynamic perspective” uses a sensor system “to respond to the way you hold, view, and move Fire, enabling experiences not possible on other smartphones,” Amazon said.
Another feature dubbed “Firefly” recognizes things in the real world such as web and email addresses, phone numbers, bar codes, and millions of products, “and lets you take action in seconds” to buy a product or create a music playlist, for example.
Contrary to some speculation, Amazon is not shaking up the pricing model for the smartphone market – selling the device to US customers through AT&T at $200 with a contract, starting 25 July.
“Fire Phone is less about competing with iPhone and Galaxy and more about helping Amazon continuing to build loyalty, solidifying customer relationships and selling more stuff,” independent telecom analyst Jeff Kagan said.
Forrester Research analyst Julie Ask offered a similar view.
“Amazon’s success in mobile will not be defined by handset sales, but by what it learns, adds to its portfolio of services, and its ability to increase the quantity and improve the quality of mobile moments with its consumers,” she said.
The relatively small size – closer to the iPhone in size than the larger Samsung phones – allows for easy one-handed operation. The display allows for a more “immersive” experience because it recognizers the user’s position and adapts the image.
The new device, Amazon’s first smartphone, has the potential to shake up the segment because of online giant’s clout, large customer base and willingness to sell devices at low profit margins, some analysts said.
Trip Chowdhry, analyst at Global Equities Research, said Amazon is now taking on rivals such as Google and Apple head-on.
In a note to clients, Chowdhry said the Amazon phone has “innovations that Apple will need to catch up to.”
“Apple has probably fallen behind in innovation – they are still struggling with figuring out the right screen size, while Amazon is racing ahead with innovations, with dynamic perspective and Firefly being the most ground breaking innovations,” Chowdhry wrote.
He added that Google and Amazon are now more direct competitors, because Amazon uses a modified or “forked” version of Android.
“Amazon.com’s FireOS is not good news for Google, as this could hurt Google’s developer ecosystem and could provide an alternate Amazon’s AppStore to Google’s Play.”
- © AFP 2014.
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They should concentrate on improving battery life. Sod everything else for a year.
Real life minority report…
The biggest battery drain on a phone is the preinstalled apps that you can’t uninstall. I have to disable them and then hide the icon. The biggest revolution for me would be the ability to install only the apps I actually want. Apps to close when you close them and not rely on third party apps to force close them. And for the cache to reset. If mobile data switched off when the screen was off that would save a lot battery too.
The other thing they need to consider us true wireless recharging. That is, walk into a room that has the charger plugged in… and the phone starts charging. The technology already exists.
The whole thing needs to be geared towards protecting battery life and allowing the user to uninstall crappy apps they never use.
Also you shouldn’t need a google plus account to rate an app. That’s a massive gimmick to get android users to sign up for google plus.
oh eugene stop whining be happy:) beggers cant be choosers
Very constructive.
Is this it for the future of smart phones, small increases in screen resolutions and other gimmicks?
Rumours of the s5 premium version having a curved screen. Not really a gimmick as all the big names are starting to release curved TV’s at the minute. They are just one step ahead..
Curved screen tv’s are ridiculous gimmicks.
CRTs used to be curved. Then flat screen CRT came out, oh they were great. Then LCD / plasma and so on all flat. They need something new so back to curved. Slightly different but still. Just waiting on the new green and black screen s6 Myself
Are phones the new cars? Has the car radically improved in the last hundred years?
My samsung S4 keeps freezing and turning itself off.
larry i’ll get a curved screen just to stay ahead of the curve ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
Curved TV screens provide much better viewing angles for the forthcoming wave of glasses free 3D
TV screens are getting that big they need to curve them so you can see it in your periphery vision, will eventually go all the way round and be called THE TUBE….waiting on THE SPHERICAL it will be absolutely hysterical….!!!!
You should try a soft reset – this is basically holding down the power button – turning off the device.
Remove the back, remove the battery and leave it out of the device for about 30 seconds.
Insert battery, add the cover back on.
Then turn your phone back on.
They should concentrate on letting people download the new kitkat operating system.3 people I know with samsung s3/s4 can’t download it.if it was apple it would be all over the news
Yeah, it fell short because it was too similar, indeed. Not because of Sammy’s disgraceful disregard for their current user base. As a Note 2 user, I got tired waiting for some form of support from Samsung. Jumped ship to CyanogenMod and haven’t looked back. No more Sammy phones for me, thank you.
It’s not released yet so they would be doing well to download it. It’s only out for Google nexus devices and by using custom ROMs.
Kit Kat or not, it will still run touchwiz which makes android slow and laggy regardless of what version it’s on.
Take a Break
Buy an I phone
@jamie he is looking for a phone not a fashion accesory
No he’s not he’s taking a break
“It felt that the S4 may have fell short of consumer expectations because its design was too similar to the S3.”
Translation: People were upset that it wasn’t immediately apparent they had the newest phone on the market.
Never hurt Apple
Eye scanning, implemented properly would be better than a fingerprint reader like what’s on the iPhone 5S.
Fingerprint reading is an inherently bad idea from a security point of view, as you can’t change the “secret” (your fingerprint) and you leave copies of it on every item you touch. Various academic papers and hackers have demonstrated how easily defeated fingerprint readers are by creating a copy of the print by candle wax or latex Neither it nor eye scanning are genuinely secure features, as they are both vulnerable to so-called “rubber hose” attacks where the owner is coerced into unlocking the phone. They should be treated as convenient gimmicks, not robust access control methods.
Yawwwnnn
John – you find genuine security issues boring?
Back to your Candy Crush. Leave important issues to those intelligent enough to understand them.
No need to be nasty, candy crush is a great game.
Eye believe it when I see it,
Piece of crap!!
Says the Apple lover… meh…
freaky after reading that as I heard Morgan Freeman’s voice…
Can’t for the life of me understand fanatical brand loyalty. I love my MacBook Pro, and will likely be buying a MacBook Air when it needs replacing, but I can appreciate other brand’s products – I even ditched an iPhone for a Note 2 because iOS didn’t suit my needs any more…
You would be able spot a galaxy S5 owner from a mile away. They would be the r€tard, holding the phone in they’re face trying to unlock it. It would be so easy for thieves to spot them.
“The feature would be Samsung’s response to Apple’s”
To Apple’s what?
In response to Apple’s Touch Id fingerprint scanner, I presume.
I think that more people would use a fingerprint scanner than a retina scanner on their phone.
But show knows…
Im pretty far back now with my s2, need to change it soon.
Cant beat the nokia c2
They all do the same thing.Big money making scam bring out a new model every 8 months or so, with a better camera, better screen res. Another few new perks that you never use.Then we all go like thicks and buy it.
my patent
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