With the Fire phone, the online retailer is coming in as an unproven underdog, hoping to bring iPhone and Android users into its fold. CEO Jeff Bezos says the only way to do that is to differentiate; to wow potential buyers with new features they didn't even realize they needed.
These unique offerings include 3D head-tracking, product scanning and fast help from customer service agents.
PROS
- Mayday provides quick access to tech support
- Comes with free year of Prime membership
- Good call quality
CONS
- Exclusive to AT&T, no global options
- 3D effects can cause motion sickness
- Limited ecosystem
- Dynamic Perspective and Firefly need some work
- Unique features hamper battery life and performance
In a nutshell...
Amazon's debut phone isn't bad, per se, but what we seriously think is that there's little incentive for anyone to switch carriers or platforms to buy it. Its unique features don't provide enough reasons for switching to it, and it comes at the expense of both battery life and performance.
Regardless of the bells and whistles on offer here, Amazon is walking down a really difficult path: The Fire is only available on AT&T, and at $200 on-contract ($650 full retail), it's going up against high-end devices from companies that have been making phones for years. In order to win over the customers, Amazon surely has to convince them that the Fire is worth dropping loyalties, switching carriers, resigning contracts and handing over a lot of money. Unfortunately, it is inevitable that the company has a few lessons to learn before that's going to happen...
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