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Amazon Fire Phone

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351–360 of 429 posts

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#351

So who's the actual manufacturer? I had read at one point that Google has locked up most major cell manufacturers so they are prevented from offering handsets with non-Google-integrated Android. That and the somewhat lackluster screen leads me to believe it's a no-name OEM.

May have to wait for tear-downs to get a better idea.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#353
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you here; I was really surprised by the price tag, considering that over the course of a 2-year contract you're on the hook for another $200 worth of prime membership to get the most out of the features. I'm already on the edge of cancelling my Prime membership because of the problems with "2-day" shipping turning in to "3-5 day" shipping thanks to UPS Surepost being complete garbage, and I already have…

Small correction: you get a year of Prime free with purchase of the phone, and if you're already a Prime member, they extend your existing membership by one year. This is way down the page though. I'm really surprised that they didn't feature this information in the price displays themselves for existing Prime members.

That's not a small correction and it's worth noting, thank you for pointing that out! Yeah that information should be prominently displayed there. "This phone costs $200+contract and comes with $100 worth of Amazon Prime for free" is a much better selling point than "This phone costs $200+contract, just like every other high-end phone out there"

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#355
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is worth mentioning that they are including a year of prime which is worth $99 and a $10 credit on their store so the actual price compared to say an iPhone is $90.

And if you already have Prime? Do they refund a year of your subscription?

They extend your subscription by a year.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#356
post #345
post #300

It weighs 160g! Only has 1280x720 resolution. They want me to buy it at 649$? Are they insane? Google Nexus 5 is already huge, but it still weighs only 130g, and at least it has 1920x1080 resolution and only costs 349$. For 649$, I might as well buy iPhone 5s, which only weighs 112g. Yet it probably has the exact same battery life, due to the more efficient software! Keep in mind, both Nexus 5 and iPhone 5s are almos…

+1, weight has a huge impact on the user experience of a smartphone and doesn't get enough attention in specs. There is a significant comfort difference between light phones in the 100-150g range (latest iPhone, Nexus, Galaxy) and heavy phones in the 150-200g range (e.g. most Nokia Lumia phones, phablets). 720p for 4.7" doesn't bother me, as that's still full fidelity at 11". http://isthisretina.com/

I think there's a big difference between 720p and 1080p in how much shit fits on the screen. I love 1080p @ 4,95" on my Nexus 5; the 720p @ 4,65" on Galaxy Nexus is clearly not as good to have as much shit fit on the screen.

It's not so much the fidelity as it is about the screen real estate. People tend to hold the phones much closer to their eyes than tablets, so, the extra pixels don't go wasted.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#357

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…

My suspicion is that the pricing is to intentionally depress sales initially while they work out supporting a phone at scale, since this is a new segment for them.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#358
post #176

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…

You make a good point: Apple: Sell at high price, modest tie-in revenue. Google: Sell at low price, modest tie-in revenue. Amazon: Sell at low price, high tie-in revenue. It does seem like Amazon is bound to win in the long run, based on pure economics, if this trend continues.

I wonder how this relates to IBM of old which had a business model that amounted to "Sell at high price, high tie-in revenue." It didn't work out so well for them (at least for their PC business), turned out that people didn't really want to be "tied"-in.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#359
BTW, it's not even released yet!

> Pre-order Now

> This item will be released on July 25, 2014.

E.g. even http://oneplus.net/one will likely come sooner than this! And at half the price, plus much better specs!

I still think that 4.7" Fire @ 160g and 5.5" OnePlus One @ 162g is way too heavy for a phone. At least OnePlus One has a much bigger screen, comes at half the price, and has more DYI OSS under the hood.

iPhone 5s is only 112g, Google Nexus 5 is 130g, iPhone 5c is 132g, Amazon Fire Phone is 160g.

The extra 30g to 48g is very noticeable in your pocket, and you're not even getting a bigger screen, plus if you compare with iPhone, those extra 48g don't even seem add extra battery life, since iOS is just so much more efficient.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#360
The price will clearly come down over time and the hardware will improve just as they did with the Kindle. The value proposition for Amazon is very similar to the Kindle: sell a device that adds further value to the Amazon ecosystem and drives demand and ad-hoc purchasing. They also have more room to experiment with a phone vs. a book reader since there is less focus on the reading experience.
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