- Amazon plans new smartphone powered by generative AI assistant Alexa+.
- Move marks return to hardware after failed 2014 Fire Phone.
- Device aims to compete with Apple and Android ecosystems.
- Launch details, pricing and partnerships not yet disclosed.
Amazon is creating a new smartphone on the one hand, as one Reuters story published on Friday revealed that the company recurred into the craft of smartphones, more than ten years since the disaster of the Fire Phone a $199 provincial handset Amazon leader Jeff Bezos had vigorously promoted until 2015, when it ceased operations because of selling only tens of thousands of devices, and causing a loss amounting to 170 million dollars.
The new device will run on the generative AI assistant Alexa+ and will be positioned as an expansion on the overarching strategy of the company to bring its AI to every space its customers spend out of the home.
The development, had it been announced, would be one of the most aggressive product bets in the recent history of Amazon and a direct competitor on Apple iPhone and the Android platform that was commanded by Google and Samsung, the same competitors who embarrassed the company in 2014.
The variation this once, according to Amazon, is that the AI foundations which the Fire Phone attempted to imitate with its gimmicky 3D camera sensors and Firefly picture recognition feature are now really transformative – and Alexa+ already has tens of millions of active users who have already proven willingness to use AI to handle complex, multi-step processes.
The Fire Phone: How not to make a 170 million Facebook phone
The first Fire Phone was introduced in June of 2014 at the same price point as the iPhone, and the lack of app ecosystem, relationship with carriers and brand loyalty could not support it. Its highlights- a four-camera system that aimed to achieve 3D parallax effect and a Firefly button that had the potential to recognise real-world objects and link those objects directly to Amazon product pages in particular were generally characterized as solutions in need of the problem.
