despite the criticism it has some seriously cool features like firefly and 'MayDay'. Not everything has to gel in with the consumer right away. He's casting the net far and wide, and keeping his foot in the devices game. That's awesome.
The Fire phone debacle
151–160 of 188 posts
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
The whole point of the exercise is not to just ship volumes of units, but build an ecosystem (just like what Apple and Google are doing too) . A budget phone doesn't work because it won't be geared up to play the music and video and all of the other traits Amazon is looking at with it's 'Fire' ecosystem. > Forget the lame Amazon AppStore, or at least provide both -- AppStore and Google Play, and let the customer choo…
>A budget phone doesn't work because it won't be geared up to play the music and video wait what? do you realize even $40 chinese phones are 2 core 1GHz with dedicated hardware decoders for every popular codec?
Everyone keeps implying there are super cheap super good chinese phones. Is there a site that reviews these or a link where an uninitiated can check the best options out?
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#153Amazon seems to have truly become the Walmart of e-commerce, and I'm not just talking about what the company does (commerce), but rather what the brand represents. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Walmart and Amazon have proven that if you dominate the supply chain landscape and offer a huge variety with low margins, you can do moderately well (i.e. stay in business). But with so much being essentially commodity g…
I love Amazon to death. I have no idea what you mean by "Amazon version of something", but I just purchased an MS ergo keyboard from them a few weeks ago instead of going to best buy. As far as I'm concerned there is no "Amazon version of something", there's simply an amazing service providing so much value that I'm more than happy to wait a few days to get it from Amazon than to buy it retail.
Amazon has their own branded range of products called Amazon Basics.
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#154This article really reminded me how much Apple screwed up to let Android get a foothold. Look how unassailable the Apple and Android are now -- you can't get a foothold at the bottom of the market because it's hugely fragmented and there are no profit margins, while at the top of the market you're taking on beloved brands and have to try crazy over-the-top bets to get in the door -- which usually backfire. Android co…
Apple didn't screw up. The disadvantages you cite are inevitable consequences of the strategy they consciously chose (selling premium devices differentiated by user experience). If Apple hadn't waited until carriers (especially Verizon) to come to them, iPhones would be as full of branding and bloatware as any other carrier-sold phone, not to mention interference with updates, interference with retail launches and wh…
Indeed, it's hard to figure they screwed up too badly when according to Canaccord Genuity's autumn 2014 estimates, Apple took 86% of the handset industry profits.
I used to think they'd missed an opportunity by not dominating the lower end of the market too like they did with the ipod but I think a big issue would be having the apps and software run on their phones. They are after all a software platform and if you produce cheap crap phones then the whole business of just being able to download an app and run it on your Apple phone breaks as the cheap phones may not be up to it. You'd then end up with different software and marketing efforts for the different phones and before you knew it you'd be Nokia.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/11/04/apple-continues-to...
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
>A budget phone doesn't work because it won't be geared up to play the music and video wait what? do you realize even $40 chinese phones are 2 core 1GHz with dedicated hardware decoders for every popular codec?
Everyone keeps implying there are super cheap super good chinese phones. Is there a site that reviews these or a link where an uninitiated can check the best options out?
there are super cheap phones with okish hardware, but software is universally SHIT, from broken functions, lazy implementations, to malicious rootkits and spyware in factory roms
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
>A budget phone doesn't work because it won't be geared up to play the music and video wait what? do you realize even $40 chinese phones are 2 core 1GHz with dedicated hardware decoders for every popular codec?
Everyone keeps implying there are super cheap super good chinese phones. Is there a site that reviews these or a link where an uninitiated can check the best options out?
Well, there is and isn't.
I bought my phone from aliexpress last year. Since then, Haipai Noble has had 3 major versions, and a dozen minor hardware updates.
Decide on price, and find reviews online of popular Chinese phones. Make sure the have the hardware features you want at the price you want. And then follow safe buying rules. Don't buy from low sales vendors, nor bad scored vendors.
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
>A budget phone doesn't work because it won't be geared up to play the music and video wait what? do you realize even $40 chinese phones are 2 core 1GHz with dedicated hardware decoders for every popular codec?
Everyone keeps implying there are super cheap super good chinese phones. Is there a site that reviews these or a link where an uninitiated can check the best options out?
Depends on what you mean by "super cheap", but :
$350 Nexus 5 http://www.google.com/nexus/5/
$250-ish - Lumia 1320 https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phones/smartphones/noki...
$200 - ZTE Grand X Max http://www.androidcentral.com/hands-zte-grand-x-max
$180 - Motorola G http://www.motorola.com/us/Moto-G-2nd-Gen/moto-g-2nd-gen-pdp...
They've all gotten good reviews for their hardware.
I don't think it's crazy to expect that Amazon could build a really solid "Basics" phone at around $200 - $250, since their competitors all do so with reasonable margins to spare.
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#158This has classic Amazon politics written all over it. I'm pretty far removed from anything Kindle/Fire related, but this was my best guess at what happened based off of the Amazon I know: Jeff said make a phone (probably like 5 years ago). They pulled orgs apart and mashed them into this superorg with several VPs and dozens of Directors, with the software teams in Seattle but the hardware folks in a completely differ…
I really like Amazon externally, they do some things very well. But I don't know how they keep running.
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#159This has classic Amazon politics written all over it. I'm pretty far removed from anything Kindle/Fire related, but this was my best guess at what happened based off of the Amazon I know: Jeff said make a phone (probably like 5 years ago). They pulled orgs apart and mashed them into this superorg with several VPs and dozens of Directors, with the software teams in Seattle but the hardware folks in a completely differ…
Sounds about right. There's only room for one iconoclast at Amazon: anyone showing resistance to the crazy ideas Jeff came up with would be shown the door. You just don't understand, man: Jeff has a ...vision... and he's never been wrong!. It may be time for a strong board of directors who can reign in the ego a little before we get any more projects reminiscent of Lucas' later films.
Re: The Fire phone debacle
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have seen so many people blame Amazon for not including Google Play, but this is really Google's decision. In order to use Google Play Services, you need to make all of Google's services default and unremovable. This was done specifically so companies like Amazon could not include it on devices meant to push competing services. Even though I use plenty of Google software, I am more than happy to see them have compe…
I don't understand why that would be a problem. Pre-installing Google's stuff is a fair price to pay for getting a full-up Android OS for free. Amazon's goal should be for it's apps and services to be fully competitive with everyone else's regardless of what phone they are on - iPhone, Nexus, Galaxy, Fire, shouldn't matter. I really don't see what the problem is with having Amazon's apps and services installed on the…
I agree with you, and my point is simply this: AMZN should just sell a Nexus clone and be done with it. Does GOOG actually discourage phone makers from using their services? I don't think so.
Nexus is a reference design. So, I'll just copy Nexus but bundle Amazon Prime with it. What's not to love? So AMZN has to bundle their Amazon App or whatever on the phone; that's a given.
Unless, of course, GOOG has decided to actually make money off the Nexus phones, as indicated by their Nexus 6 pricing. But that's just opening up a market for a less expensive clone to be the logical replacement for the Nexus 4/5.