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Amazon Fire Phone

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Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#411

Post by personZ »

hrjet wrote: post #374
personZ wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their core business is that monetization, by definition. The NFL is primarily sponsored through network agreements, which themselves are primarily sponsored through advertisers. Is the "core business" of the NFL, then, advertising? Of course it isn't. Such an argument is specious to the point of uselessness, and only appears in the form of rhetoric. The NFL's core business is making an entertaining sports product tha…

Google sells ads on third-party website properties. The parent's argument is certainly not specious.

The discussion is what Google's "core business" is. Google makes less than 1/5th of their revenue from their ad network in third party products and sites. The overwhelming majority of their money comes from monetization of their own services.

Apple operates and promotes its own ad network, and its lack of success in that market doesn't somehow separate it from that reality. No one would claim that Apple's core business was iAds.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#412

Post by dkrich »

stcredzero wrote: post #268
dkrich wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying that Amazon will be the big winner in the long run because they can control the phone, and the products you buy on Amazon? If I'm interpreting that correctly, I don't see how that holds. People use smartphones/tablets/televisions to consume many things. Amazon products are just one of them. I don't think that just because controlling the entire product ecosystem would work to Amazon's advantage means th…

You're saying that Amazon will be the big winner in the long run because they can control the phone, and the products you buy on Amazon? If they can leverage that to reduce buying friction, then yes, that's exactly the right move!

But you have to consider R&D costs. If they get one million people to buy this phone over the next year, how many of those customers will buy more products from Amazon than they already were?

At $199, my gut tells me that the early adopters of this phone will largely be people who already use Amazon regularly.

The term "big winner" to me implies that the thought process is that they will win out over Samsung and Apple in the long run, but I don't think that is very likely anytime soon. I don't hate the move by Amazon because you have to start somewhere, but predicting them the winner as this device is first launched is very optimistic in my eyes.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#413

Post by natch »

mstultz wrote: post #297
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…

I haven't purchased many things on my phone--if anything--excluding apps.

Maybe the barrier to purchasing is too high. It would seem this phone aims to change exactly that.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#414

Post by natch »

hershel wrote: post #186
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…

Maybe the reason amazon prices that way, is that it's really expensive ? It seems that the most expensive thing here would be the mayday service. And maybe it's the killer feature here? One big reason why seniors buy the iphone is that there are classes in the apple store which help them learn to use the device and overcome their fear of tech.So mayday could work well for that segment. Also, many tech people hate com…

Another reason seniors buy the iPhone is that they have gained some limited amount of wisdom, and one thing some of them have learned is that buying crap usually ends up being a waste of money.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#415

Post by chrismorgan »

Looks like it has features only designed for use in the right hand? That’s poor accessibility, providing severely degraded behaviour for around ⅒ of the population, the left-handed people.

I wonder whether they would sell a left-handed version…

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#416

Post by _halcyon_ »

It doesn't seem like this phone offers enough to differentiate itself from what's already on the market. Bezos warned everyone though that previous Amazon products started out with underwhelming reviews and later were successful.

If anything I see this phone getting cheaper/better very quickly, much like they did with their tablet product.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#417

Post by Zelphyr »

jobu wrote: post #205
Zelphyr wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect Mayday is targeted more at older users (e.g.; my parents and grandparents). Which is why it doesn't really appeal to me much since, as someone who works in technology, I'm less inclined to need it. Still, you're right that Amazon offers great customer service so I'll give them props for Mayday.

Who do your parents and grandparents go to for help with their phones? In my family everyone comes to me, so even as a fairly technical person this Mayday feature seems great. :-)

Great point! Mayday give me a reason to not do free tech support. :)

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#418

Post by peterwwillis »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #409
peterwwillis wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different markets. The Moto G (and Moto E, cheaper at $130) have much lower specs, and there are phones that have the same specs as a Moto G or Moto E for half the price (like the AT&T Radiant) because they don't carry the "Moto" brand.

Radiant doesn't have the 'same' specs as the G. Radiant: 480 x 800 G: 720 x 1280 Radiant has a much smaller battery. G has quad core, radiant has dual. G has 8gb of storage. Radiant has 2 available to user. Moto G comes in an LTE flavor for $30 more, no option with Radiant. Radiant is also forever stuck on 4.1 while the G continues to get updates and will probably get some for some time.

I was comparing the E to the Radiant, not the G.

Moto E: Dual-core 1.2 GHz, 4.3 inches, 540x960, Internal 4GB, 1GB RAM, MicroSD, 5MP Camera, 854x480 Video, HSDPA, Li-Ion 1980 mAh, Android 4.4

Price: $130 @ Amazon

ZTE Radiant: Dual-core 1.4 GHz, 4.0 inches, 480x800, Internal 2GB, 1GB RAM, MicroSD, 5MP Camera, 1280x720 Video, HSDPA, Li-Ion 1735 mAh, Android 4.1

Price: $75 @ Amazon

The Moto E and the ZTE Radiant do not have identical specs. But the Radiant is half the cost at almost the same specs. It's clearly a better value. If you can't stand not having the latest Android you can install many custom ROMs, or just wait a year or two for another dirt-cheap phone with a newer version and buy that.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#420

Post by rogerdpack »

mbreese wrote: post #114
stevenguichard wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mayday is actually a killer feature on a phone for Grandma. With 24/7 on-device tech support, relatives would never have to field tech support requests.

But would Grandma really want a phone like this?

Unfortunately, there are grandma's who are practically forced to have a smartphone "since the family plan has data" and...they would probably like live support (I'm just saying they do exist).
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