Amazon presents The Fire Phone

Don’t be surprised but Amazon has finally unveils the Fire Phone.  Amazon’s new handset is powered by a quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Has a big 4.7-inch 720p HD display. Amazon also claims that the screen will be bright enough to be visible in outdoor lighting. We are going to have to test that out before we can believe that one. The Fire Phone comes packed with  2GB of RAM, dual stereo speakers, a 13-megapixel rear camera and front-facing camera for video chats. The Fire Phone come with earbuds that are tangle-proof, with flat cables and magnetic buds that stick together. A pretty big perk of buying the phone is the unlimited cloud-based photo storage that comes with it. To play devil’s advocate, what happens when you change phones? Do you have a set time frame to remove your pictures or is there a fee to keep them in the cloud? ,

The phone has a customized version of Android. Think Kindle Fire but smaller. You will not find the Google Play Store in this phone. You will have to use the Amazon Amazon Appstore or download one of the many other knockoff Android stores out there. The phone does not look any different than the other touchscreen phones out there. It’s basically a black thin slab. What makes the phone unique is the combination of sensors and four front-facing cameras. The sensors and cameras will track the user’s head so it can create the right UI for you heads location. The UI is part 3D effects mixed with some really cool gestures  for control.

I know we all think Apple has a ecosystem that is very very tight knit and you would be right but Amazon has it’s ecosystem on lock down. That said Amazon started locking down everything with the Kindle and continued to integrate its ecosystem with each new product. The Fire TV was the first taste of integration that people really noticed and a little upset with. When you use the voice search on the Fire TV the first thing content that shows up is Amazon paid content even if the same content is on Netflix for free. The Fire Phone has a Second Screen feature and what devices doesnt know a days, allows you to “fling” any video you’re watching from the phone’s display to your Amazon FireTV. It works just like Apple iPhone does with AppleTV.

The Fire Phone continue that deep integration. It will feature deep integration with Amazon’s Prime services. Prime video, Music and Kindle software for eBooks will all be a big part of how the phone will pay for its self. Those that buy the Fire Phone for a limited time will also get a year of Prime for free. The introduction of the always on FireFly which tracks all  you see is a big privacy issue but a great way to get people to buy items direct from Amazon. Firefly uses the camera to scan barcodes on products. The feature can also product information based on just a picture of the product. Firefly can also listen to music or TV shows just like Shazam to recognize them. Of course all this product information comes from Amazon where you can conveniently buy said product right from your phone. The Fire Phone uses Firefly to try to recognize numbers and email addresses as well. Once they are recognized you that information can be added to a new contact or used to initiate a call or email. The phone has a dedicated Firefly button that pulls the feature up in one second, according to Amazon.

The Mayday service, which is like having customer service at all times with you will also be part of the phone. Amazon’s customer service team video chat service is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It should be entertaining to see how many new silly questions pop up know that the service is on a phone. The Amazon Fire Phone will start at $199.99 on contract with 32GB of storage, and a 64GB version will be available for $299.99. Off contract, the phone will be priced in line with the iPhone, starting at $650. Amazon’s Fire Phone will be available exclusively from AT&T in the United States, and it will launch on July 25th. Pre-order availability begins today on Amazon’s website.Yes I did say exclusively at AT&T 🙁

 The Specs: