Amazon Fire Phone: Too expensive to matter today
At $649, the Amazon Fire Phone appears to be a really good piece of engineering and software design. It’s just too expensive to matter at the moment. This is a turning point to remember though. The ramifications of yesterday’s launch are likely to be seen in 2 or 3 years time.
The current price point will have been a difficult one to decide upon for the Amazon executives famed for their preference for waver-thin margins to wipe the floor with the rest of the market.
When the real Amazon — the one we know from the decimation of other industries — wakes up and decides to compete seriously, that’s when we’ll have a game on our hands in the mobile industry.
As it stands today I’m delighted to see the Fire Phone hit the market. It’s going to give the standard status quo a bit of a kick. Not much. But a bit of a kick. It’s not every day that you see a handset hit the market with a fully formed ecosystem ready and waiting. I could happily pick up the Fire Phone and find oodles of familiarity in terms of my Amazon media. Like millions of others I’m a big user of their Kindle platform and their audiobook service Audible. I have also stuck thousands of music tracks on to Amazon’s Music Cloud — not that I do much with them there… yet. And of course, I am a massive Prime customer.
So the Fire Phone undoubtedly makes a lot of sense.
I certainly agree with the executive comments I published earlier: The Fire Phone is definitely “The Shopping Phone”.
I don’t have a problem with that.
I’m just concerned about price. I’m concerned about the market entry via AT&T in the States. I was secretly hoping for Amazon to absolutely rock the mobile world yesterday by declaring that $649 (or thereabouts) bought the phone AND the data plan for the year. Or something like that. Something to cause the mobile operator executives opening their FTs this morning to turn very, very pale.
I was reaching with that wish though. The time is not quite right. We’re not quite there. Amazon haven’t bought Truphone. 😉
That would be an interesting one, wouldn’t it? If Amazon purchased Truphone and then leveraged their global (more or less) data (and calls) footprint to deliver service to almost anyone, anywhere.
I am definitely looking forward to the next step from Amazon. People will buy the Fire Phone. I’ve no doubt. But it’s going to be in small numbers I’m sure, at least in the first instance.
Who is going to want to commit to a 2-year contract and $199 up front for an unproven device? Limited numbers. That will change.
It’s interesting to see AT&T involved again, hoping for a replay of the iPhone exclusive joy they experienced. Times are so different now. When the exclusivity was announced I could feel the frustration from the mobile world in America. Why couldn’t Amazon have chosen a better network if it had to be exclusive? 😉
Going for exclusivity is a great way of limiting sales — or hiding limited initial sales. A sensible precaution. As long as we don’t have any ‘bumper’ problems hitting the press in the next few months, the pull and the drive of Amazon’s brand should get a few customers walking into AT&T and demanding the device. Likewise the customers wavering over whether to buy a Samsung or an iPhone now have a genuinely strong, familiar brand to choose from.
Let’s just hope we don’t hear about really poor battery performance or similar.
I haven’t bothered ordering one. Yeah it’ll probably sort-of work here in the UK but I have decided to wait for Amazon to fiddle about and launch a UK version. $649 is £380. So I expect the UK version should retail for, what, £399? Still pretty expensive.
I am unconvinced whether the Great Unwashed will respond in droves just yet to queue up virtually for the Fire Phone. The pricing feels too much of a risk at the moment. The early adopters will need to get hold of it and after a few quarters and one or two price reductions, it will be interesting to see how prospective customers react. The Amazon ecosystem is warm and appealing, provided you’re not after a niche set of apps.
Good show Amazon, good show. I’m pretty pleased all round. The price point is the problem — but that can be addressed in time. Once Amazon have a handle on just how valuable the average Fire Phone customer becomes, that should help them make some pricing decisions.
I wonder where we’ll be in 3 years time? Will I eventually be buying my mother a Fire Phone? I can visualise that. Will we all be walking around as “Amazon Prime Data” customers? (i.e. Amazon Prime plus an unlimited data bundle) Here’s hoping. I’d love to see how the operators would respond.
And what of Apple and the others? Bring on the excitement. We’ve need a bit of a change for a long time in the mobile world so I am pleased to welcome the 800lb Gorilla that is Amazon.
Let’s see what comes next from Amazon.
Note: Read the full Amazon Fire Phone press release
