Amazon’s Undisruptive SmartPhone

For the last twelve months, rumours around Amazon and the Tech industry have suggested that Amazon was working on a SmartPhone to complement their Kindle Fire Tablet line.

Yesterday, in Seattle, US, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced a new product, the Amazon Fire Phone.

Specifications for the device look decent, it would appear to be pitched at the mid-higher levels of performance, with 720p video playback, and a decent battery.

Amazon Fire Phone, a costly product to help people spend more on Amazon

The Amazon Fire Phone is promoting the benefits of a 3D display, and motion tracking control. Personally I don’t see the benefits of such technology, and would like to see them in practice before I write them off as gimmicky.

The most disappointing aspect of the product is that is does not disrupt the cellphone / mobile / wireless market. Amazon, with its huge customer base and market power, could have caused major waves by being aggressive.

The Kindle Fire Phone should have been very cheap to buy, off contract. This would have allowed Amazon to shift millions of devices to its customers, providing them more customer data and an even easier customer purchasing portal.

Instead, what Amazon has launched is an Amazon tailored version of Android on American carrier AT&T, an expensive ($749 for a 64GB version off contract) device that will not have the cool factor / customer usability of an Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S5. To customers who are not in the market for a high end phone, I fail to see the attraction when good devices like the Nokia Lumia 520 and Moto G can be purchased sim-free at very reasonable rates.

If you’re an Amazon fan, my suggestion is to hold off buying this first generation device and hope the price comes down. For everyone else, there’s much better options out there.