Gadronics
After getting burned by the Fire Phone in 2014, Amazon is reportedly developing a new iPhone competitor for the current decade. The company’s revitalized hardware division is taking inspiration from Alexa instead of 3D this time around.
Reuters reports that a project internally known as “Transformer” is Amazon’s modern attempt at developing a voice assistant-centric smartphone.
The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter. The phone is seen as a potential mobile personalization device that can sync with home voice assistant Alexa and serve as a conduit to Amazon customers throughout the day, the people said.
While founder and chairman Jeff Bezos no longer holds the CEO title, the initiative reportedly dates back to his ambitions to compete with Apple in the smartphone space.
The initiative is the newest chapter in a years-long effort to bring to market Bezos’ long-held vision of a ubiquitous voice-driven computing assistant akin to the voice-controlled computer in science fiction series “Star Trek.”
Bezos had envisioned a smartphone that had shopping at its core and could take on Apple by offering shipping convenience and discounts through the Prime membership. Along the way, Amazon could gain a wealth of new data about users only available through mobile phones combined with purchase history and content preferences.
Amazon famously failed to leave its mark in the phone world in the mid 2010s. Its “Fire Phone” relied on a set of cameras that created a 3D interface as a gimmick.
Despite success selling Kindle e-readers and cheap Fire tablets, Amazon failed to compete in the smartphone race.
There were an awful lot of good Fire Phone puns at the time, at least. Samsung eventually took the heat off Amazon’s Fire Phone when the smartphone heavyweight released the Note 7, a phone that actually routinely caught fire. Trailblazers, galore.
Anyway, Reuters reports that Amazon’s hardware division has a mandate to create “breakthrough” products. Meanwhile, the killer feature sounds like using Amazon services. Per the report:
As envisioned, the new phone’s personalization features would make buying from Amazon.com, watching Prime Video, listening to Prime Music or ordering food from partners like Grubhub easier than ever, the people said. They asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal matters.
In theory, one path forward that could make sense is bolstering Alexa+ as an AI tool. If customers found enough value in Alexa+ in various areas of life, having Alexa be the focus of the phone could be competitive.
Apple is still working on this with Siri. Hopefully we’ll see the first results of this effort with iOS 26.5 soon.
