Amazon smartphone rumours heating up

[Jeremy Proome]

Amazon smartphone already in testing phase

Reports suggest Amazon is now testing its forthcoming smartphone competitor

[Ockie]

Well...this will be running a custom version of Android anyways not so? So not really in competition with Android.

Gotta say....if they customize Android on this phone like they did on the Kindle Fire...then all I can say is BLEH!

[BeVonk!]

Amazon should call their OS version Amazoid.

[JStrike]

Well...this will be running a custom version of Android anyways not so? So not really in competition with Android.

Gotta say....if they customize Android on this phone like they did on the Kindle Fire...then all I can say is BLEH!

It will undoubtedly run Fire OS

[Ockie]

It will undoubtedly run Fire OS

Fire OS is a heavily customised and locked down version of Android not so?

[GreyBush]

Amazon should call their OS version Amazoid.

Andronazon.

[JStrike]

Fire OS is a heavily customised and locked down version of Android not so?

It's a fork of the Android OS

[murraybiscuit]

when your average joe asks his techy friend what to buy and they say "galaxy sIII". in the consumer's mind, android doesn't come into the equation, specs don't factor in and samsung fits somewhere in the picture (but they're not sure where). as long as it has "facebook" and "apps" they feel safe.

i think there's a gap for an android licensee/forker to create a single android device which borrows some halo of an existing brand... i can see consumers saying: "it's like a pretty kindle fire, but it's a phone". if i was amazon, i'd start off with a galaxy note-style crossover device and then complement with a regular mobile form factor once their cloud services and storage offering is more mature. ebooks are still their main usp and i don't think it would work for them to launch with something that didn't offer this and have synergy with a kindle.

the one thing that a lot of the current android oems lack is a strong content provider brand. amazon has this. with their retail, cloud and content strengths, i think that medium to long term, they could make a really effective business transition into the apple/ms content space and dodge the bullets of white-labeled oem saturation and a plateauing e-book market. for me, they would be one to watch.

[JStrike]

when your average joe asks his techy friend what to buy and they say "galaxy sIII". in the consumer's mind, android doesn't come into the equation, specs don't factor in and samsung fits somewhere in the picture (but they're not sure where). as long as it has "facebook" and "apps" they feel safe.

i think there's a gap for an android licensee/forker to create a single android device which borrows some halo of an existing brand... i can see consumers saying: "it's like a pretty kindle fire, but it's a phone". if i was amazon, i'd start off with a galaxy note-style crossover device and then complement with a regular mobile form factor once their cloud services and storage offering is more mature. ebooks are still their main usp and i don't think it would work for them to launch with something that didn't offer this and have synergy with a kindle.

the one thing that a lot of the current android oems lack is a strong content provider brand. amazon has this. with their retail, cloud and content strengths, i think that medium to long term, they could make a really effective business transition into the apple/ms content space and dodge the bullets of white-labeled oem saturation and a plateauing e-book market. for me, they would be one to watch.

"once their cloud services and storage offering is more mature" huh????
They have the best cloud service and storage in the industry!!!