5 ms·

WSJ: Amazon Testing Smartphone

34 points by ONE37 14y ago

nirvana 14y ago
One thing to know about Amazon is that they use PR to leak things. I think there's an ethical problem in reporters not revealing that a "leak" is coming from a PR agency. "people familiar with the situation said" conveys a very different impression than "according to amazon PR off the record." When I worked there, they released dozens of products a year. They would have teams work for 6 months to create a product for a press release and then the team would dissipate over the next 6 months, the "product" would simply get stale and eventually be cut. Amazon movie times, local menus, catalog ordering, etc. Amazon is a hype machine, driven to keep their PE in the stratosphere. I understood this in the 1990s, I have not understood it since, but that's how they operate. They do have a solid business in Amazon.com (but notice how the international expansion stopped dead. Easy to do a big PR campaign about going worldwide, but then you don't have to follow thru). All those kindle fire rumors before it was announced? They came from Amazon PR. This is how MG got his hands on one early... it wasn't some amazon employee that snuck it out of the building, it was an amazon PR Flack that handed it to him. This is how they also say things like "The kindle fire is selling like crazy" to create that perception, without actually releasing any numbers. If they released numbers it would allow direct comparisons and be embarrassing. If they released fraudulent numbers it would be actionable in a shareholder lawsuit. But they can release whatever "Whispers" they want and create the perception that the kindle fire is selling like crazy... because Amazon PR said so. I can't say it doesn't work though. These rumors come out, the stock price is goosed. They eventually release a phone, the stock price is goosed. By the time they give up on the phone, people will have generally forgotten about it anyway. Or it might be one of those few products that does make some money. (or that they figure is a sufficient PR generator to keep pouring money into-- if legions of people will call every leaked upcoming kindle fire an "iPad killer" then maybe the PR value is sufficient.) Frankly, I think it is a form of fraud. They have way mislead people about amazon fire sales. Some people even think they sell as many fires as Apple sells iPads. But that's the kind of company they are.
- shimon 14y ago
  You're just describing successful PR, and also describing company performance that you're not happy about. The relation between those two things is not always strong. But as long as it's not actual fraud, figuring out how to get people with an audience to write about your product/company is just what PR is about.
- roc 14y ago
  > ""people familiar with the situation said" conveys a very different impression than "according to amazon PR off the record."" Well "according to amazon PR off the record" is a contradiction in terms. If you identify them as the source, they're on the record in every way that matters. That said, I completely agree that the press has long been horrible at passing along glorified press releases as 'news' and it ought to stop. I just can't think of any feasible system to stop it. Even a community attempt to catalog and shame people out of it would just force the practice to evolve into using intermediaries, however deep as necessary, to establish plausible deniability.
- coliveira 14y ago
  Completely agree, but notice that this describes not just Amazon. Google and Microsoft are big players in this space, every week generating a lot of "news" for products that fail to materialize in the marketplace. Apple is similar, but I would put it in a slightly different class because they generate PR for real products, not just for PR's sake.
wittekm 14y ago
Ignoring the news for a second - am I the only one who thinks this dark grey on slightly lighter grey makes for a terrible color scheme for reading?
- jmduke 14y ago
  Dark grey on slighty lighter grey? Try light grey on slightly lighter grey. The Readability (http://www.readability.com http://www.readability.com) bookmarklet comes in handy.
ajays 14y ago
The smartphone is the "browser" of the 21st century. Remember the old days when tons of browsers were coming out? The situation is going to become like that. By controlling the phone, you control the user's access to the 'net. You decide which search engine s/he uses, which maps site, which IM client, etc. You give prominence to your buttons (shopping in this case), while denying/delaying competitors. The whole browser war is going to play out over the next year or two, this time via smartphones.
programminggeek 14y ago
I am actually looking forward to an Amazon phone. I think the media consumption model is a good one for these devices. Amazon could easily become the #2 or #3 Android phone maker behind Samsung and HTC. Also, in the US, Amazon could do something like Straight Talk SIM and partner with AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint and offer an "unlimited" talk/text/data plan for $45 a month that runs direct through Amazon.com. They could even throw in Amazon Prime on top or maybe for an extra $5 a month. Then for $50 a month you get phone, internet, movie streaming, book rental, fast shipping... That could be very compelling.
- hell0_th3r3 14y ago
  i'm more pessimistic. i'm expecting something along the lines of a smaller kindle fire....useless unless you are getting amazon e-content.
deveac 14y ago
Ok. They are testing a smartphone. What is Amazon going to do here? I look at Palm, and saw an awesome OS that rivaled (at the time) iOS in many ways. Yeah, the hardware was lacking (this article cites Amazon shopping China and analogous hardware concerns, though they couldn't be as bad I would hope), but in the end, it was a platform that could not attract developers among other things. Didn't happen under HP. Look at what has happened to RIM, another platform sans developers. It's the same concern you hear repeated over and over again with Microsoft. Can they, somehow manage to make a convincing case to developers en masse? And looking at Amazon's app store and forked Android strategy, all I've seen with their Kindle platform is yet another tablet without developers. I know they are all trying, but I have to wonder when one of them are going to come up with some strategy that is so out of the box and different that we all have collectively no choice but to say "Damn. That is exciting. This could get them in the game." I think that the value-add for someone else trying to get in the game has to almost come outside of broad app offerings. They need to avoid the 'chicken-egg' scenario by breaking in from the side. For me, one of the little bouts of genius that Apple implemented on iOS was that you could not download completely free apps unless you had a valid credit card loaded into their system (yeah, I know you can get around this by purchasing a 5$ gift card). Believe me when I say that I told myself that I would never actually buy an app from the Appstore, as free software covered essentially all core functions and services in some form or another. But with the mandatory credit card filing, breaking that promise was effortless, and break it I did. Many times. With a tap. Amazon and Apple both have their customers connected to their stores, and they both have terrific stores that are best in class, but while Apple sells media, Amazon goes one better and sells real world goods. All goods. Everything you can possible think of. I think Amazon could benefit from this in a big way if they play their cards right. I didn't know this for years, but Amazon has a service that lets you set a recurring schedule of products to be delivered at specific times, -could be every week, month, etc. I thought "How cool, -I can completely eliminate my trips to Target and just have all my non-perishable goods delivered to my back door every month or two." Cleaning supplies, paper towels, shampoo, -you name it. It solves a problem for people, but it is hidden and not obvious or intuitive. I think it would be at least interesting if Amazon took a service like this right to the user and made it a prominent feature of their phone. What if, part of setting up your Kindle phone you were prompted to set up your shopping list, or at least had the option in a not to intrusive way? It wouldn't have to be turned on, but with the push of the button the users knew they were turning on a stream of goods, already effortlessly connected to their credit card, that would eliminate a massive percentage of their shopping. What if there was a grocery list app baked in (not a generic shopping app, but one tailored to an IRL behavior specifically) where you could just jump to your products and smash the 'send now' button when you run out of something and it arrives the next day. Having the phone be the hub that eliminates a lot of your shopping and manages how you do that could be a big selling point if done right. While Amazon would love to reap the benefits of more online sales, they shouldn't treat that as the goal, -the whole experience would have to be focused on solving a problem for consumers and providing a value, which would be eliminating as much time spent on shopping IRL. It could be hard to do, but these are the kinds of value adds that a player like Amazon might need to execute, and execute exceedingly well, in order to get the platform beloved by consumers enough to make developers one day sit up and pay attention. Maybe it's a terrible idea, but I just have this nagging feeling that new players are gonna keep failing unless they find a hook that leverages some other asset. I think Microsoft has a similar opportunity with their phone and the xBox, and while I know they see it too, it remains to be seen whether or not they will exploit it to the hilt.

34 points by ONE37 14y ago

One thing to know about Amazon is that they use PR to leak things. I think there's an ethical problem in reporters not revealing that a "leak" is coming from a PR agency. "people familiar with the situation said" conveys a very different impression than "according to amazon PR off the record." When I worked there, they released dozens of products a year. They would have teams work for 6 months to create a product for a press release and then the team would dissipate over the next 6 months, the "product" would simply get stale and eventually be cut. Amazon movie times, local menus, catalog ordering, etc. Amazon is a hype machine, driven to keep their PE in the stratosphere. I understood this in the 1990s, I have not understood it since, but that's how they operate. They do have a solid business in Amazon.com (but notice how the international expansion stopped dead. Easy to do a big PR campaign about going worldwide, but then you don't have to follow thru). All those kindle fire rumors before it was announced? They came from Amazon PR. This is how MG got his hands on one early... it wasn't some amazon employee that snuck it out of the building, it was an amazon PR Flack that handed it to him. This is how they also say things like "The kindle fire is selling like crazy" to create that perception, without actually releasing any numbers. If they released numbers it would allow direct comparisons and be embarrassing. If they released fraudulent numbers it would be actionable in a shareholder lawsuit. But they can release whatever "Whispers" they want and create the perception that the kindle fire is selling like crazy... because Amazon PR said so. I can't say it doesn't work though. These rumors come out, the stock price is goosed. They eventually release a phone, the stock price is goosed. By the time they give up on the phone, people will have generally forgotten about it anyway. Or it might be one of those few products that does make some money. (or that they figure is a sufficient PR generator to keep pouring money into-- if legions of people will call every leaked upcoming kindle fire an "iPad killer" then maybe the PR value is sufficient.) Frankly, I think it is a form of fraud. They have way mislead people about amazon fire sales. Some people even think they sell as many fires as Apple sells iPads. But that's the kind of company they are.

shimon 14y ago
You're just describing successful PR, and also describing company performance that you're not happy about. The relation between those two things is not always strong. But as long as it's not actual fraud, figuring out how to get people with an audience to write about your product/company is just what PR is about.
roc 14y ago
> ""people familiar with the situation said" conveys a very different impression than "according to amazon PR off the record."" Well "according to amazon PR off the record" is a contradiction in terms. If you identify them as the source, they're on the record in every way that matters. That said, I completely agree that the press has long been horrible at passing along glorified press releases as 'news' and it ought to stop. I just can't think of any feasible system to stop it. Even a community attempt to catalog and shame people out of it would just force the practice to evolve into using intermediaries, however deep as necessary, to establish plausible deniability.
coliveira 14y ago
Completely agree, but notice that this describes not just Amazon. Google and Microsoft are big players in this space, every week generating a lot of "news" for products that fail to materialize in the marketplace. Apple is similar, but I would put it in a slightly different class because they generate PR for real products, not just for PR's sake.

wittekm 14y ago

Ignoring the news for a second - am I the only one who thinks this dark grey on slightly lighter grey makes for a terrible color scheme for reading?

jmduke 14y ago
Dark grey on slighty lighter grey? Try light grey on slightly lighter grey. The Readability (http://www.readability.com http://www.readability.com) bookmarklet comes in handy.

ajays 14y ago

The smartphone is the "browser" of the 21st century. Remember the old days when tons of browsers were coming out? The situation is going to become like that. By controlling the phone, you control the user's access to the 'net. You decide which search engine s/he uses, which maps site, which IM client, etc. You give prominence to your buttons (shopping in this case), while denying/delaying competitors. The whole browser war is going to play out over the next year or two, this time via smartphones.

programminggeek 14y ago

I am actually looking forward to an Amazon phone. I think the media consumption model is a good one for these devices. Amazon could easily become the #2 or #3 Android phone maker behind Samsung and HTC. Also, in the US, Amazon could do something like Straight Talk SIM and partner with AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint and offer an "unlimited" talk/text/data plan for $45 a month that runs direct through Amazon.com. They could even throw in Amazon Prime on top or maybe for an extra $5 a month. Then for $50 a month you get phone, internet, movie streaming, book rental, fast shipping... That could be very compelling.

hell0_th3r3 14y ago
i'm more pessimistic. i'm expecting something along the lines of a smaller kindle fire....useless unless you are getting amazon e-content.

deveac 14y ago

Ok. They are testing a smartphone. What is Amazon going to do here? I look at Palm, and saw an awesome OS that rivaled (at the time) iOS in many ways. Yeah, the hardware was lacking (this article cites Amazon shopping China and analogous hardware concerns, though they couldn't be as bad I would hope), but in the end, it was a platform that could not attract developers among other things. Didn't happen under HP. Look at what has happened to RIM, another platform sans developers. It's the same concern you hear repeated over and over again with Microsoft. Can they, somehow manage to make a convincing case to developers en masse? And looking at Amazon's app store and forked Android strategy, all I've seen with their Kindle platform is yet another tablet without developers. I know they are all trying, but I have to wonder when one of them are going to come up with some strategy that is so out of the box and different that we all have collectively no choice but to say "Damn. That is exciting. This could get them in the game." I think that the value-add for someone else trying to get in the game has to almost come outside of broad app offerings. They need to avoid the 'chicken-egg' scenario by breaking in from the side. For me, one of the little bouts of genius that Apple implemented on iOS was that you could not download completely free apps unless you had a valid credit card loaded into their system (yeah, I know you can get around this by purchasing a 5$ gift card). Believe me when I say that I told myself that I would never actually buy an app from the Appstore, as free software covered essentially all core functions and services in some form or another. But with the mandatory credit card filing, breaking that promise was effortless, and break it I did. Many times. With a tap. Amazon and Apple both have their customers connected to their stores, and they both have terrific stores that are best in class, but while Apple sells media, Amazon goes one better and sells real world goods. All goods. Everything you can possible think of. I think Amazon could benefit from this in a big way if they play their cards right. I didn't know this for years, but Amazon has a service that lets you set a recurring schedule of products to be delivered at specific times, -could be every week, month, etc. I thought "How cool, -I can completely eliminate my trips to Target and just have all my non-perishable goods delivered to my back door every month or two." Cleaning supplies, paper towels, shampoo, -you name it. It solves a problem for people, but it is hidden and not obvious or intuitive. I think it would be at least interesting if Amazon took a service like this right to the user and made it a prominent feature of their phone. What if, part of setting up your Kindle phone you were prompted to set up your shopping list, or at least had the option in a not to intrusive way? It wouldn't have to be turned on, but with the push of the button the users knew they were turning on a stream of goods, already effortlessly connected to their credit card, that would eliminate a massive percentage of their shopping. What if there was a grocery list app baked in (not a generic shopping app, but one tailored to an IRL behavior specifically) where you could just jump to your products and smash the 'send now' button when you run out of something and it arrives the next day. Having the phone be the hub that eliminates a lot of your shopping and manages how you do that could be a big selling point if done right. While Amazon would love to reap the benefits of more online sales, they shouldn't treat that as the goal, -the whole experience would have to be focused on solving a problem for consumers and providing a value, which would be eliminating as much time spent on shopping IRL. It could be hard to do, but these are the kinds of value adds that a player like Amazon might need to execute, and execute exceedingly well, in order to get the platform beloved by consumers enough to make developers one day sit up and pay attention. Maybe it's a terrible idea, but I just have this nagging feeling that new players are gonna keep failing unless they find a hook that leverages some other asset. I think Microsoft has a similar opportunity with their phone and the xBox, and while I know they see it too, it remains to be seen whether or not they will exploit it to the hilt.