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Ask HN: Why doesn't Amazon release a phone?
Right now there is a duopoly when it comes to smartphones. I'm just curious why doesn't Amazon -one of the biggest companies in the world, with experience in both hardware and software- push for its own platform?
Is the smartphone market already THAT saturated?
- satya71 6y agoThey did and failed spectacularly. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Phone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Phone
- Raed667 6y agoIt looks like they focused on 3D gimmick, instead of building a good general purpose smartphone
- mattm 6y agoThis is a pretty entertaining long read of it https://www.fastcompany.com/3039887/under-fire https://www.fastcompany.com/3039887/under-fire
- speedgoose 6y agoAlready 6 years ago! I feel so old.
- bynkman 6y agoThank you. I came here to call out this. I will say that implementing a phone is not easy. Just look at the issues Palm and Blackberry have had to stay relevant. Nokia did for a while, but finally went with Android. At least in the American market, it seems that Motorola, Samsung, Google, and Apple are the winners these days.
- Madeuloook 6y agoIts all about the app stores. Unless they run android like Microsoft is doing.
- RemingtonLak 6y agoIt was the most idiotic thing I've ever seen. What kind of marketing research told the Prod Mgrs that a 3D phone with 6 cameras with 3D moving like images help a mother with screaming toddlers order more diapers? What would have made a better phone focusing in consumables by Amzn customers is a one handed phone with a builtin barcode reader (which is did have with a dedicated button) that will directly find/order the item. Making buying and ordering their priority function. However, conjecturing, but I believe they may be working on another phone. Lower cost focusing on the more ludicative India market. Probably also coincides with them getting and probably launching soon their satellites for internet. And also trying to figure how not to be based on Android.
- andrefuchs 6y agoKaiOS would have been a great opportunity for Amazon. (especially for India) They could move away from Android and boost Alexa for voice assistance. They missed it and Google is now heavily investing in KaiOS pushing Google Assistant and their other services.
- RemingtonLak 6y agoI believe the behemoth they are, they are working on their own. Underline hw layer is already extracted by phone manuf and amzn wants to have their own app store (salivating over how much aapl makes from theirs). You can pretty much build your own phone with needed os and apps. It just won't be apple store or google play compatible but it will be a working smartphone with all the same look/feel. Or buy out KaiOS? :) Alternatives are coming out of the wood works as of late. I don't think it would be far stretch to start anew in a "new" country ripe for new beginnings. Particularly when their gov is blocking most apps anyways. Good way for Amzn to work into their system without offending their gov. Amzn is a company who will sell your soul to the devil for a penny because there is 7 Billion potential new accts. Btw they have already moved away from android on their Echo devices onto their own RTOS. I know FB tried and failed to roll out and get adopted with their FB phone, but that's bc they are FB. At this point, failure is their only option. Unfortunately with 2 Billion naive users with no viable alternative, FB death will be slow although they did just provide a "take with you" option of all of your posts so.. may be speeding up? but again to where?
- andrefuchs 6y agoAmazon's own Android AppStore is not very popular and doesn't offer all important apps. They would need to implement the Google Play Store to be successful - at least in markets like North America and Europe - and they obviously don't want that. It's why WindowsPhone and BlackBerry10 failed - fantastic OS but a lack of apps.
- maps7 6y agoBecause they're bad at software judging from AWS console, Amazon prime, Fire tablet OS
- muzani 6y agoNot sure if sarcasm. A lot of the world does run on AWS.