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Amazon Fire Phone

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Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#271

Post by abc_lisper »

ctdonath wrote: post #123
abc_lisper wrote: post #60

What's amazon angle here? Why are they doing this?

To make it easier to buy stuff from Amazon. Right down to the "press dedicated button, get picture of arbitrary product you're looking at, get Amazon.com product page for it". Just like Apple making a closed ecosystem that deeply persuades users to buy apps from the App Store, music & video from the iTunes Store, store data on iCloud, buy more same-ecosystem devices, etc.

Hmm.. This makes sense. So they would offer suggestions on what to buy based on what your general interests are.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#272

Post by baddox »

toddmorey wrote: post #112
ultimoo wrote: post #36

I am always a little skeptical about gestures that involve physically moving or tilting or swivelling the phone. Maybe it works well for others but I find it getting very much in the way when I use my phone in bed, or lying around on the couch, or walking even. On my iPhone 5, I have the screen rotation locked for about 99% of the time.

I think the subtle tilt-to-scroll paradigm, if it works well, could become widely adopted. It seems to make one-handed scrolling much more approachable without any fingers obscuring content. Question: Does it seem like it requires the camera system to make it usable or could it be done reliably with just the accelerometers now common in smart phones?

It's been done before. Instapaper on iOS has had tilt scrolling for years. It works fine, it's just not a very useful feature.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#274

Post by dark_night_tim »

mkr-hn wrote: post #248

If this is as smooth as my Kindle Fire (newest one), I might want one in 2-3 versions. I keep finding things on my first Android phone that could have been fixed with a little more polish. My Kindle Fire is perfect in every way. Amazon seems to understand how important it is to get expensive consumer electronics right and not leave a lot of rough edges.

Try a nexus 7...

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#275

Post by snsr »

personZ wrote: post #233
Consultant32452 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is interesting I think... iPad: Kindle Fire, Nexus 7 Apple TV: Kindle Fire TV, Chromecast iTunes: Amazon Prime Streaming TV + now music, Google Play iPhone: Kindle Fire Phone, Nexus 4 I think they're all playing for the same territory. The big difference seems to be that Apple really only sells the technology. Google sells the technology so that they can sell advertising for third party products. Amazon has the…

Google sells the technology so that they can sell advertising for third party products. I see this a lot of HN, and I wonder if people are just assuming? To put it into context, I see far more ads on my iPad and iPad Touch than I ever have on my Nexus 5. Outside of the money Google makes from their book, video, and apps stores, they sell the technology to ensure that their services remain viable, and cannot be cut ou…

> I see far more ads on my iPad and iPad Touch than I ever have on my Nexus 5

Aside from web content and occasional visits to the app store I don't think that I can ever recall seeing an advertisement on any of my iOS devices.

That said, it may be the case that web-based advertisements are targeted at and/or tailored for iOS/Mobile Safari.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#276

Post by vlunkr »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #235
evilduck wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm taking the opposite stance, this is a stupid gimmick until proven otherwise. Scrolling with my finger can happen on the very edge of the screen or area of interaction and it's easy to move out of viewing obstruction. Tilt-based interaction has existed for years on iOS and Android using the accelerometers. It's not a responsiveness or tracking issue, it's that interacting with screens at oblique angles is annoying…

> it's that interacting with screens at oblique angles is annoying When I saw the tilt features, I was very confused. Tilt the phone's screen away from you in order to read Yelp reviews? What? So in order to get more details, I need to make the device harder to read. Maybe it is a good feature, but the examples just make it seem like a gimmick that will get in the way.

Yeah those example really don't sound appealing. Basically instead of hiding additional options in a slide-out menu you can now tuck them to the side of your app and make users tilt their head or hand to find them.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#278

Post by mcphilip »

nostromo wrote: post #120

The market positioning here seems very un-Amazon. "Your margin is my opportunity" is probably my favorite Bezosism. Given that perspective and Apple's very cushy margins, I expected Amazon not to approach the market with an expensive phone packed with new features, but to approach the market from the bottom, with a good phone that is free or nearly free. The problem, of course, is that Google seems to have that segme…

>If I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, this will probably be a novelty, like Windows Phone, for a while to come.

Agreed. I'm having trouble visualizing how it moves from being novelty to being ubiquitous. I purchased one of the original Kindles back when it was a novelty, but I understand why it became the dominant eInk device since it was a novelty item with little to no competition. For the Fire, it's a novelty with stiff competition from the beginning.

As someone who rarely shops on Amazon and doesn't want a Prime subscription, why would I chose this phone?

Maybe the answer is Amazon doesn't expect this product to take off fast. Maybe it's a much longer term play initially targeted just to those already comfortably engaged in its ecosystem.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#279

Post by opendais »

kevincrane wrote: post #253
opendais wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand? I can tell you from experience 0 of the ones I've encountered outside the IT/Startup space were aware of that is what it does.

> How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand? Probably around the same number who care that their traffic is going through Amazon first.

I bet if you went and talked to people if they were comfortable with all of their online banking being routed through Amazon...I suspect most would say No. Just a guess.

If you put it in terms they understand, they care.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#280

Post by sharkweek »

opendais wrote: post #249
Consultant32452 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google sells you a device so they can show you an ad encouraging you to buy a rake. In turn Google gets a sliver of the profits from selling a rake in the form of ad revenue. Amazon sells you a device so they can show you an ad encouraging you to buy a rake. Amazon sells you the rake, has it delivered in 2 days, and makes 100% of the profit. It's not that people will actively look for that integration, but that it ex…

This is false in Amazon's case. Amazon sells you a rake made by a 3rd party who was put into FBA by a wholesaler and makes a reasonable cut of the profit in the process. Amazon has more control but also takes all the blame when things go wrong. Tbh, as someone who works at a business who does both the ads & selling stuff via Amazon as a manufacturer...Google actually makes more money off of us than Amazon does. I don…

Amazon hardly takes all the blame when something goes wrong - they mostly just discretely recoup from the vendor all while looking like a benevolent company.
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