{"id":46408,"date":"2017-10-09T05:37:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T05:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=46408"},"modified":"2017-10-09T05:37:49","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T05:37:49","slug":"in-defense-of-the-amazon-fire-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/technology\/mobile\/in-defense-of-the-amazon-fire-phone.html","title":{"rendered":"In defense of the Amazon Fire Phone"},"content":{"rendered":"

In defense of the Amazon Fire Phone<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

In defense of the Amazon Fire Phone:- The Fire Phone is widely regarded as one of Amazon\u2019s biggest misfires \u2014 and rightfully so. After debuting in the top spot of the company\u2019s retail charts, things quickly spun out of control.<\/span><\/p>\n

In all, the phone reportedly sold, at most, 35,000 units in its first 20 days \u2014 even more upsettingly for Amazon, the company swallowed a $170 million loss due to the phone\u2019s failure. That\u2019s the production budget for the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie \u2014 and they had a talking raccoon and Vin Diesel and stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s more than enough to put a company off making phones permanently. But given all that\u2019s happened in the industry in the three and a half years since the handset\u2019s release, maybe it\u2019s time for a reappraisal of the Fire Phone and what it meant for Amazon\u2019s hardware division.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the aftermath of the product\u2019s release, it\u2019s easy to forget that the Fire Phone actually wasn\u2019t all that poorly received by the media. There were some complaints about the on-board hardware (Amazon\u2019s never been especially interested in premium specs) and some of the device\u2019s implementation of features. But most seemed to agree that, at the very least, the product brought some compelling features to a smartphone market that was already starting to feel a little stale.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fire\u2019s standout feature was Dynamic Perspective \u2014 a quartet of cameras paired with a gyroscope, that brought a sort of parallax perspective to the phone\u2019s UI. Granted, the implementation was pretty silly \u2014 it was a lot of extra hardware with seemingly little return. But in 2017, the idea of multiple on-board cameras for depth sensing is becoming pretty standard \u2014 and the software applications for such a technology are much more numerous than they were three and a half years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

A two-camera setting has quickly become industry standard for flagships. The early results functions are relatively simply, from added optical zoom to the bokeh Portrait Mode that every big manufacturer currently offers a take on. And then, of course, there\u2019s AR. With ARKit and ARCore out in the world, nearly every device maker is looking for a way to distinguish themselves and best serve the coming explosion of augmented reality apps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many are already doing a decent job faking it with a single on-board camera, but offering a premium augmented reality experience requires solid depth sensing, and that\u2019s best served with the inclusion of multiple cameras. One can even make the argument that Amazon was forward-thinking in its decision to include this technology on the front-facing cameras.<\/span><\/p>\n

From higher-end selfies to Animojis on the iPhone X, smartphone makers view the little swath of real estate above the screen as one of the next key spots in the hardware spec battle. In both cases, it\u2019s clear that Amazon was ahead of many in its recognition that camera technology would become an increasingly important focus for smartphones. I suspect that the Fire Phone\u2019s camera set up would have continued to evolve in interesting ways, had the line been allowed to live.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Alexa. There\u2019s no question that the Fire Phone would have changed the math completely for Amazon\u2019s smart assistant. The gesture-based controls that came along with the phone\u2019s camera array point to a company looking for alternative input methods, and Amazon just happened to be developing its own voice assistant in house. Rolling out Alexa and the Echo at roughly the same time could have made it even more of a powerhouse than it is today.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it stands, Alexa\u2019s mobile representation is, at best, anemic \u2014 and Google\u2019s been able to make up ground in the race by offering Assistant on the phone and in the home. The presence of Assistant and Siri on mobile devices have also made the AI more robust, integrating them more deeply into mobile operating systems and adding additional non-voice input methods for a more well-rounded offering. All the while, Amazon appears to consider Alexa almost exclusively a voice assistant.<\/span><\/p>\n

AI and machine learning are playing an increasingly important role on these devices, thanks in no small part to the proliferation of smart assistants. That shift is precisely what caused Google to declare the specs race over last week \u2014 it\u2019s something that could have served Amazon well, as the company has clearly put less of a focus on hardware versus software.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s harder to make a defense for the company\u2019s stubborn insistence on making its own walled Android skins. But a quick look at Amazon\u2019s recent tablet offerings shows that the company has clearly learned that, when it comes to skinning operating systems, less is more. There\u2019s still plenty of room to integrate proprietary apps like Mayday without bogging down Android entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

All of these elements taken together could add up to a legitimately compelling mobile experience from a company that has no doubt learned lessons from the past, while continuing to build up usual potential mobile pieces like Alexa. If the rumors from earlier in the year are true, and the company is working on the Amazon Ice smartphone, the company may stand a fighting chance this time out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s hardware team has been thriving in the wake of the Echo\u2019s success, and if the company isn\u2019t too put off by past failures, the time seems right to give it another go.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2017\/10\/07\/in-defense-of-the-amazon-fire-phone\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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