What you need to know
- Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of devices and services, gave an interview to the Financial Times where he briefly touched on the Amazon Phone rumors.
- A phone isn’t exactly the target for Amazon right now; but Panay did not categorically say “no” to this idea and said that it could be “misleading”.
- Rumors from March claimed that Amazon might be looking to replace a smartphone under Project Transformer.
This week, an Amazon executive gave an interview to discuss the future of their devices, and it could dash any smartphone hopes.
A Financial Times An interview with Amazon’s head of devices and services, Panos Panay, shed some light on these “Project Transformer” rumors. That covered most of the interview with Panay Alexathe company’s artificial intelligence and how it can be meaningfully implemented. At home, Panay discussed one area: simplicity was needed there, but then came the subject of a potential Amazon Phone or phone revival. Fire phone.
The publication “What device will you perform with? Will it be a phone?” That prompted quite a response from an Amazon executive, who said, “Here’s what I’d say: It’s just not the goal. I know there are a lot of rumors out there.”
Panay doesn’t believe the phone is going anywhere, but says it’s been through more than a decade of “transformations.” However, Panay refused to definitively say no to the question of whether Amazon is after the phone. A follow-up reply reads: “If I said no black and white, I’d say it’s accurate. But I also think it’s misleading.”
There seem to be two factors at play here. The first concerns the competition in the smartphone market. The Financial Times brought it up apple‘s iPhone, basically asking if someone would trade their iPhone for an Amazon Phone. This brought Panay’s telling reply that “You’re bringing up too much of the past,” because the Fire Phone didn’t really make a splash when it debuted a decade ago.
Nothing is certain
The second factor is Panay’s attitude towards delivering another phone. He says, “What I’m not going to do again (go to a customer and say) is another phone. What do you think? It makes no sense. We know what customers need right now.” Interestingly, the publication asked if Amazon would be interested in a “feature phone” to host certain services. Panay seemed open to the idea, but said it was “not the focus today.”
Rumors in March Amazon claimed to be Within the framework of the “Transformer” project, he was chasing another smartphone era. Details were incredibly light, with the only bright spot being that the device could rely on artificial intelligence as a “voice-controlled” device for ordering food, shopping and more. Interesting considering this last question from the Financial Times Light Phone (by Noor) mentioned in those rumours.
Presumably, Amazon was looking at this type of device for inspiration. This would eliminate more distractions like social media apps, games, what have you for the basics. We’re stuck in a weird limbo with these Amazon Phone rumors right now, so it’s probably best to wait and see what happens (if it ever does).
Android Central’s Take
It’s a funny interview when you get it. I only say this because it refers to Apple’s iPhone. I have to imagine that Amazon debuted the phone today. Let’s say there was a press release, we covered it, and it comes out next week or whatever. How many people will follow this phone? I’m not talking about tech enthusiasts and publications that want to report on it. I mean real people. Consumers. A man like you reads me. That’s what makes the difference here. I think and this looks like Amazon sees that they are the people they need to capture. If they don’t, why do they?
