Amazon Is Reportedly Working On A Smartphone | Hacker News Reader

Amazon Is Reportedly Working On A Smartphone

techcrunch.com

20 pointsezdebater21 comments

A Amazon Smartphone could be a rather interesting device, since Amazon is mainly selling content. So they do not care (much) if they make money by selling hardware.

For example a phone which is mostly geared towards ebooks, that is a very good display but no GPS and no strong graphics capabilities, could have a market. (Especially if it is cheap and already unlocked). Additionally Amazon is a trusted brand, which already has the credit card number of most potential customers, they could therefore easily build a strong app store/ mobile shopping site (actually they already have it).

...Amazon is a trusted brand, which already has the credit card number of most potential customers, they could therefore easily build a strong app store/ mobile shopping site (actually they already have it).

Sounds like a strong position from which to implement mobile payments.

For mobile payments, isn't the key having merchant accounts set up for vendors rather than accounts for consumers?

I'm not sure how walking into a store and telling them I have an Amazon account (Do I enter my username/password at a kiosk?) makes the payment much easier than giving them my credit card or filling in my credit card information on a kiosk.

There are many different ways to do mobile payments (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment), so there might be a way that it could work, but I'm not seeing it right now.

> For mobile payments, isn't the key having merchant accounts set up for vendors rather than accounts for consumers?

Yes, but Amazon clearly knows how to handle merchant accounts. All they need to do is to figure out the right market to get the ball rolling.

The right market to get the ball rolling is likely the Amazon marketplace. It could be interesting for small shops to get an additional distribution channel and at the same time a reliable payment provider for their brick and mortar store.

An Amazon feature phone with a 4" screen and free data for Kindle books selling for <$100 on contract would be interesting. Basically the Kindle Phone (not the Kindle Fire Phone). Just a small Kindle with a phone built in, and free data ala the 3G Kindle.

After the Kindle Fire, I don't know if I really trust Amazon to release quality hardware. The traditional Kindles are top of the line, but their foray into more advanced electronics hasn't been up to snuff.

They'll definitely need a huge hook in order to gain a solid market share. It can't be just an Amazon branded phone running a customized Android OS.

Maybe they could MVNO on one or more networks, with favorable data plans internationally, and handle all sales/service on the phones as well.

If I could have Amazon customer service handle all of my cellphone needs, I'd be fine with paying twice what I pay Verizon or ATT now. The hardware would be largely irrelevant.

US smartphone plans are $70+ a month. I don't think you really mean that. Or if you do, you're in a tiny, tiny minority. Obviously there's room for someone to do it better, but no one is going to pay $3000 for a two year phone contract.

I'd pay $200/mo for a global data roaming plan which didn't suck, with VoIP ideally also handled by the carrier, with great support. You can do this with blackberry (for the data roaming part) now, but I'd want Android or iPhone (or WP8 I guess).

This will be tough given their business model. Plenty of very strong android phones can be bought for free on contract, and off contract phones have already scratched <$100 for okay android hardware.

Amazon said their strategy with the Fire was to make it as affordable as possible. They know they make their money back in app/book/video sales. However, there is no room for a budget Android phone any more. The only way they can conceivably go is up towards the high-end, but that seems antithetical.

Only real selling point I can see for an Amazon device is video from Prime, which would require good data plans that I doubt major carriers would be happy to offer.

Perhaps we'll see an Amazon Wireless soon?

They might be able to tie in some form of NFC or mobile wallet, with your amazon account. "Pay anywhere with your amazon account". I could see that as a nice market lever for them.

Amazon Wireless already exists, but not in the sense you're describing. They sell phones and plans on the existing carriers.

http://wireless.amazon.com/

MediaTek is going to bring iphone 4S features to $150 - $200 handsets. Today such phones cost around $600. Phones using it would be released in Q3-2012. They are supposed to change the whole price dynamics in the phone market.

I think amazon will use this market change to it's benefit somehow. It'll probably release the cheapest phone in this new category or go for a less capable phone but at a really cheap price. The latter might be good offer as unsubsidized phone and together with republic wireless $19/month phone plan it would be a nice package for a low end phone. But i'm not sure amazon will do it and anger the telcos.

This is exciting, if only for the pricing pressure Amazon brings to every market they enter. Google wouldn't be selling a premium tablet at cost if it weren't for them. It's unlikely that e-readers, a fairly niche product would have moved below $100 after only a few years on the market (and their bundling 3G service with a product was an impressive value proposition from the beginning). I hope they offer a heavily subsidized phone on a network with cheap rates (Virgin).

At this point, where media content and software are already selling at commodity prices, the phone service is the only thing left to commoditize.

I am waiting for the color e-ink Kindle.

Honestly, what would an Amazon branded Android experience bring to a smartphone? I suppose I could see why they released a tablet to support their Kindle line, but this doesn't make much sense to me.

They aren't even remotely winning in the tablet game either (<1% market penetration). The Nook is besting them for 4th place.

Obviously they make their money from their controlled store / experience, but does that make up for the difference in R&D and production costs yet?

source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405847,00.asp

Your analysis of the source is misleading. The statistic reported is that the Kindle Fire captured .71% of web traffic as recorded by Chikita, an ad network.

I'm not saying your conclusion is incorrect, but I'd like to see a more definitive statistic regarding market penetration. Overall, I agree; if Amazon's main goal is to drive content sales, I don't see why entering the smartphone market at this point is the best move.

if Amazon's main goal is to drive content sales, I don't see why entering the smartphone market at this point is the best move.

Mobile payments.

Amazon already has agreements with many mobile providers around the world to supply data access for the Kindles. If their smartphone offered worldwide data roaming that did not cost an arm and a leg...

This is not a trivial problem to solve and I'm not sure Amazon is especially well positioned to solve it. The cost is being driven in a large part by the networks you're roaming onto, not the company you've signed a contract with.

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