Amazon’s phone on fire!
There’s a new competitor in the cut-throat world of smartphones and that competitor is already the largest e-commerce company out there. Amazon announced on June 16, 2014 that it would be introducing the Fire phone a phone that promises 3D viewing, seamless integration with practically everything around you, efficient one handed use, and the 24/7 MayDay feature allowing you to video chat with a technician to resolve problems.
The Fire phone doesn’t use any special 3D screens with parallax or lenticular coatings. The 3D effect is due to the 4 front facing cameras with infrared ability to track your head movements and adjust perspective accordingly. Fire also utilizes already commonly integrated technology such as accelerometers and other sensors to provide this 3D effect. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, boasted that “miniscule electric motors adjust the camera lenses 100 times a second to counter act jittery hands for an incredibly smooth display.” All of the aforementioned come together to form what Amazon has coined Dynamic Perspective Technology. Dynamic Perspective however, is not the only new tech this phone dazzles with.
Amazon is a company of things: books, CD’s, music, movies, electronics, and furniture, you name it and Amazon sells it. What better way to capitalize on their already booming e-commerce site than to incorporate Firefly technology into the new phone as well. Firefly allows you to scan QR codes, DVD’s, books, artwork and millions of other products allowing you to instantly pull up information about any product and purchase it through Amazon. In a time when the internet of things is emerging and our wallets are linked to our phones Firefly turns your phone into an anywhere and anytime check-out counter. This aspect alone would mean Amazon doesn’t have to grab a huge chunk of the insanely competitive smartphone market in order for their new product to be considered a success as they will undoubtedly bolster revenue with Firefly.
Along with Amazon’s claim that “4.7 inches is ideal for one handed use,” Fire comes with some sophisticated software technologies as well to help ease the cramping you will surely get from scanning and buying everything you see. One handed specially designed navigation and gestures such as auto-scroll promise to allow the reading of long web pages or books without ever having to lay a finger on the screen.
If this phone sounds too complicated or you’re happy with your current phone, Amazon is asking you to think about your providers support. Does your provider offer MayDay? MayDay is an interesting new service that allows you to actually video chat with an Amazon tech representative to assist you whenever you’re having difficulty with your phone or service. If you’ve seen an infomercial than you’re familiar with the phrase, “But wait, There’s more!” that’s certainly true here; along with the purchase of the phone comes a free year subscription to Amazon’s Prime service which allows you to stream TV shows, movies, download books, listen to music, and free 2 day shipping on millions of items on Amazon.com.
The new Fire phone by Amazon truly is a unique and innovative product with decent hardware specs: a 2.2 GHz quad core processor, 13MP camera, and 2GB of RAM. A 2-year contract with AT&T – yes that is the only carrier for the phone at the moment – will set you back around $199 for the 32GB flavor and $299 for the 64GB flavor.
(Image Source: iCLIPART)