Amazon could be considering a return to the Fire Phone, with a new device said to be in development.
The phone is thought to focus on AI to bridge the gap between mobile use and Alexa in the home
Amazon could be about to have a second crack at the Fire Phone, with the company said to be looking at a new device – known internally as Transformer.
The Fire Phone first launched in 2014, but was discontinued a year later and widely regarded as a complete flop. One of big reasons it failed was because of apps, or a lack thereof, with Apple and Android having established dominance.
The latest report from Reuters suggests that Amazon is revisiting the idea with reports from people within Amazon's devices and services unit. The aim, it seems, is to provide a level of synchronicity through the day with Alexa's experience in the home.
The new phone is likely being planned to address Alexa+'s biggest weakness: it doesn't have a home on mobile devices. While the Alexa app will give access to Alexa+, iPhone users are more likely to use Siri and Android users Gemini rather than Alexa+, leaving a big hole in Amazon's AI experience.
It's thought that the new Amazon phone will prioritise Amazon shopping, Prime Video, Prime Music and other services, much like Amazon's Fire tablets, with AI at the core. It's thought that AI could eliminate the need for an app store, by offering services directly through Alexa.
It might be the case that this isn't a full smartphone, but an AI companion device, with inspiration said to have come from the Light Phone, which is a minimalist device, the antithesis of the modern smartphone.
That might see Amazon's new phone acting as a device that can complete a range of AI tasks, with many of Amazon's services behind the experience. It's not yet known what form the device will take or what platform it will run on.
Will Fire Phone be a Fire Brooch instead?
The issue is, previous AI devices have had something of a rocky ride, with the Rabbit R1 and Humane AI pin struggling to gain interest with customers. While these AI devices promise to simplify things using AI, they're secondary to smartphones and just become another half-baked device to carry.
The same fate might befall Amazon's second attempt at a phone, if it's not a single device that does everything.
With the cost of mobile devices set to rise, there's a prediction that we're about to go into a smartphone slump. Amazon's best bet might be to create a device that can competitively undercut existing rivals on price, while offering a complete Android experience so users don't have to compromise.
