Will Amazon’s first smartphone be a success?

Industry News By Rhys Little, 19th June 2014

Amazon have introduced it’s first mobile: The Fire Phone.  It includes special features such as 3D effects, gesture controls and Firefly – this uses the phone’s microphone and cameras to recognise objects to purchase on Amazon.  Is this a great way for Amazon to make money? -we think so.

“Firefly is not just about taking you back to the Amazon store, it’s about knowing so much more about consumers – things Amazon would not have known before,” noted Carolina Milanesi, from research firm Kantar Worldpanel Comtech.

The 3D effects are created by using four infrared cameras located at the corners of the screen to track the users head.  This enables users to look around at the object for example: peering behind a marker on a map.

This feature is very similar to Apple’s ‘Motion Parallax’ which had complaints by customers as it made them feel sick, so Apple had to introduce an disable button for this feature.

The basic version of the phone will cost £117 and will include a two year contract with AT&T.  This is the same price as a 16GB iPhone 5s and the Samsung’s Galaxy S5.

Chief executive Jeff Bezos announced the phone at a press event in Seattle, and since then there have been mixed opinions about whether the phone will be a success.  Francisco Jeronimo, a mobile devices analyst at market research firm IDC said “We’ve seen similar gesture controls on Samsung’s Galaxy range, and not many people use them”.

We will have to wait until the 25th July when the phone will officially launch to customers.