AllThingsD: Amazon KindlePhone for 2012?

[kjk]

http://allthingsd.com/20111117/amazo...hone-for-2012/

Based on our supply chain channel checks in Asia led by Kevin Chang, Citi’s Taipei-based hardware research analyst, we believe an Amazon Smartphone will be launched in 4Q12. Based on our supply chain check, we believe FIH is now jointly developing the phone with Amazon.

Amazon hoping to disrupt the phone market the same way they are planning on disrupting the tablet market?

[tubemonkey]

Does that mean a phone locked into Amazon's ecosystem with 6GB of user available storage, no card slot, a sealed battery, and totally reliant upon Amazon's cloud (wifi only) for service?

[wallcraft]

If this is for the US, the most interesting question is will Amazon offer their own cellular service? Walmart is doing this with their "no contract" plans (Walmart Offering $45 Unlimited Cellphone Plan Nationwide). The phone might be primarily for Europe, where branded phones sold without a SIM make more sense (or Amazon could bundle service). Amazon has cellular service bundling experience world-wide from their Kindle 3G sales, but that experience may also tell them that getting phone companies to innovate is hard.

[RainingLemur]

The Amazon Kindle Spark, coming to your carriers soon!

[kjk]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

If this is for the US, the most interesting question is will Amazon offer their own cellular service? Walmart is doing this with their "no contract" plans (Walmart Offering $45 Unlimited Cellphone Plan Nationwide). The phone might be primarily for Europe, where branded phones sold without a SIM make more sense (or Amazon could bundle service). Amazon has cellular service bundling experience world-wide from their Kindle 3G sales, but that experience may also tell them that getting phone companies to innovate is hard.

Yeah, Amazon could go the MVNO route here in the US, and offer a phone with a 2 year-contract-price but with no 2-year contract (basically taking on the costs of subsidizing themselves).

$199 (or less) for a smartphone without a contract? Could be a game-changer.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Does that mean a phone locked into Amazon's ecosystem with 6GB of user available storage, no card slot, a sealed battery, and totally reliant upon Amazon's cloud (wifi only) for service?

You left out: with no consumer privacy protections and requiring no contract except that it will use a special system -- something other than GSM or CDMA -- that no other phone in the world can use.

And to keep the price low, once every 30 seconds Amazon will interrupt your phone call to play an advertisement. In addition, Amazon will agree to sell all the information it can possibly gather about you to any Nigerian scammer who wants to buy it. However, an ad-free service will be offered (but not a scammer-free service) for a large yearly fee.

[L.J. Sellers]

Here's another post on the subject.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-c...2012-holidays/
L.J.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by rhadin

You left out: with no consumer privacy protections and requiring no contract except that it will use a special system -- something other than GSM or CDMA -- that no other phone in the world can use.

And to keep the price low, once every 30 seconds Amazon will interrupt your phone call to play an advertisement. In addition, Amazon will agree to sell all the information it can possibly gather about you to any Nigerian scammer who wants to buy it. However, an ad-free service will be offered (but not a scammer-free service) for a large yearly fee.

LOL

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by rhadin

You left out: with no consumer privacy protections and requiring no contract except that it will use a special system -- something other than GSM or CDMA -- that no other phone in the world can use.

And to keep the price low, once every 30 seconds Amazon will interrupt your phone call to play an advertisement. In addition, Amazon will agree to sell all the information it can possibly gather about you to any Nigerian scammer who wants to buy it. However, an ad-free service will be offered (but not a scammer-free service) for a large yearly fee.

yes.

monkey see, monkey do, monkey repeat and spin.

6GB is > 1GB.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by kennyc

monkey see, monkey do, monkey repeat and spin.

6GB is > 1GB.

Meh, at this point Amazon is important enough to be hated just for existing and successful enough to shrug off baseless FUD. Let'em vent their frustrations. Some can be amusing in their selectiveness, like the epub bigots...

A rumor of a hypothetical Kindle phone a year away?
How much of a hint was there last year of what Fire or Kindle Touch are like?
Or that they might exist at all?
How about the SO Kindles?
All the Prime goodies?
KF8?

By now we know that Amazon delights in zag-ing when everybody else is zig-ing, which often makes the other guys backtrack and contradict themselves. They're just as likely to do a FIRE STB or a gaming console as they are to do a Spark phone.

Pretending to know what they're going to do is about as useful as trying to predict when the next major asteroid impact is coming; it'll generate a few headlines and some panic among the hysterically-predisposed but won't affect anybody's lives until it actually happens. If it happens.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by rhadin

You left out: with no consumer privacy protections and requiring no contract except that it will use a special system -- something other than GSM or CDMA -- that no other phone in the world can use.

And to keep the price low, once every 30 seconds Amazon will interrupt your phone call to play an advertisement. In addition, Amazon will agree to sell all the information it can possibly gather about you to any Nigerian scammer who wants to buy it. However, an ad-free service will be offered (but not a scammer-free service) for a large yearly fee.

You need to just let it all out, and then put your hands up in the air about even with your head, palms toward your ears, close your eyes and chant or hum softly. "Amazon bad, Amazon bad, ..." over and over.

[Nyssa]

How come the people who do not use Amazon or Amazon products seem to complain about Amazon the most?

I can not think of a single thing that I have chosen not to use that I will then turn around and incessantly complain about....

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

How come the people who do not use Amazon or Amazon products seem to complain about Amazon the most?

I can not think of a single thing that I have chosen not to use that I will then turn around and incessantly complain about....

You're a dead shot little lady. I have compared nooks to other devices but never complained about Barnes and Noble like some complain about Amazon.

I think that there is just a lot of resentment built up with some folks. Like living on the wrong side of town and hating the "uppity gentry" over in the nice area. Or going to the wrong school or betting on the wrong horse. They keep trying to convince themselves that they really are on the right side.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

You're a dead shot little lady. I have compared nooks to other devices but never complained about Barnes and Noble like some complain about Amazon.

I think that there is just a lot of resentment built up with some folks. Like living on the wrong side of town and hating the "uppity gentry" over in the nice area. Or going to the wrong school or betting on the wrong horse. They keep trying to convince themselves that they really are on the right side.

Jealousy? ... I suppose that could be the case, but I don't see why. As we've been reminded in numerous threads, the Kindle was not the first eReader and according to those same sources, mobi is not the first, best or most popular format. Plus, until recently it was not even the least expensive (although I think the K4s $80.00 price point might now have the other companies beat)...

*shrug*

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

How come the people who do not use Amazon or Amazon products seem to complain about Amazon the most?

I can not think of a single thing that I have chosen not to use that I will then turn around and incessantly complain about....

Not to be snarky but if they didn't have any complaints then they would probably be using Amazon.