The Amazon Fire phone is the newest technological device coming from Amazon and the reviews thus far have been mixed. However, at a lofty price point of $649.00 it may have left out many potential users who can’t afford to spend that kind of cash on their smartphone.
Amazon turned the tablet world on its head with the introduction of the Amazon Kindle Fire. The form and function of the Kindle Fire has been the norm for all seven-inch tablets. That being said, the success of the Kindle Fire was solely behind its $200 price point, affordable to most who shopping for a new tablet device. Reports indicate that Amazon’s Kindle Fire was sold at or just above cost, and the profit model was based on Amazon being able to sell its other products and services through the device. Kindle Fire used a stripped down version of Google Android sans Google products. So no maps, no Gmail, no Google Talk, no YouTube, etc. Still, the Kindle Fire sold, and continues to sell very well.
The Amazon Fire phone will be available through cell phone providers for $199 on a 2-year contract or $649 off contract, which puts it firmly in the higher echelon of devices including Apple’s iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy S family, and higher end HTC and LG devices. The Amazon Fire phone will attempt to break into a realm of devices with a brand new operating system. One thing that smart phone users are known for is loyalty. Just ask Microsoft how their newest smart phone operating system is faring.
What the Amazon Fire phone lacks is the wow factor introducing the new operating system to the smart phone market. The advertised wow factor, the Dynamic Perspective screen, which allows a simulated 3-D experience and its Firefly search, which allows searching audio and video for content simply is not enough to overpower the wow factor of Apple’s App Store, or Google’s user freedom. Simply put, users can live without both features. Amazon Fire phone may garner a few users wanting to try these new technological advances. However, the market as a whole will see these features as gimmicks and simply return to their version of Old Faithful.
Amazon seems to be moving away from its model of offering cheap good devices like the Kindle and Kindle Fire, even Amazon Fire TV , and jumping head first into a highly volatile market wishing, and hoping, to change the world from the top down.
