

Amazon Is Reportedly Working On A Smartphone - ezdebater
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/06/amazon-is-reportedly-working-on-a-smartphone-but-cracking-the-market-wont-be-easy/

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yk
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).

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stcredzero
_...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.

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jaredsohn
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.

~~~
stcredzero
_> 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.

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yk
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.

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iamdann
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.

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rdl
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.

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ajross
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.

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rdl
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).

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mmanfrin
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?

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calvin
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/>

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ippisl
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.

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saturdaysaint
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.

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Mordio
I am waiting for the color e-ink Kindle.

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stevejabs
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>

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nzmsv
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...

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eli
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.

