Amazon announces the Fire Phone

[MikeB]

Yesterday in Seattle, Washington Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon announced the latest contender for Apple's crown, the Amazon Fire Phone. With pricing of $649 for a SIM free 32Gb and $749 for a 64Gb phone it is definitely targeted at the high end market. Prices are cheaper when bought with a 2 year airtime contract with AT&T.

The Amazon Fire features all the specifications that you would expect from a top of the range smartphone including a 4.7 inch 720p screen, a Qualcomm quad core Snapdragon processor running at 2.2Mhz, LTE/4G communications, and of course GPS.

To make it unique it has new technology known as "Dynamic Perspective". This works off 4 infrared cameras in the front of the phone enabling the software to track eye movements and faces which allows the phone to determine how the user is holding the device and to respond accordingly.

Of course as this is an Amazon phone one of the key features is to allow users to access the Amazon content system including Music, Video, Amazon Prime, and of course the Amazon shopping portal. Some commentators have suggested this is little more than an expensive online shopping portal. If this is the case then one would have expected the device to be heavily subsidised to get a foothold in the market.

The device is based on a heavily modified version of the Google Android operating system and will have access to the huge library of Android applications. There are extensions for the new technologies in the Amazon Fire Phone so watch out for yet another development system albeit very close to the Android one.

With Apple and Samsung dominating the premium Smart Phone market it will be interesting to see if the Amazon Fire Phone will break the stranglehold these companies have or if it will fall into the backwaters like the Blackberry. I would not write Amazon off as they have become market leaders and broken into established markets where others have failed. Time will tell.

Watch the keynote video of the Amazon Fire Phone announcement here:


The Fire phone will be available in the USA from 25th July, other markets including the UK are yet to be announced.

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Mike Barrett

[alanw888]

I hope that Amazon haven't 'crippled' the new phone in the way they have the Amazon Fire Tablets.

No access to Google Play Store ie No access to banking apps, Google Maps, TV streaming (except BBC iPlayer, No SkyGo, Itv Player, 4OD 5 On demand). Etc. No Quality Sat Nav apps ie CoPilot,TomTom or any of the 'free' ones !!!

No access/download of apps while outside the UK (Gibraltar, IOM are OK unsure about Eire).

Access is only to the Amazon App store with it deplorable selection of apps but they do give away a free 'paid for' app, most of dubious quality, each day. I think of this as a sort of poor consolation prize for all the deficiencies of Amazon OS and their App store.

If you are thinking of purchasing this phone check very carefully how you use your phone and if you can actually get the things you want/need both in the UK and abroad,

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