Fire Phone
The Fire Phone is a discontinued 3D-enabled smartphone developed by Amazon and manufactured by Foxconn. It was announced on June 18, 2014, and marked Amazon's first foray into the smartphone market, following the success of the Kindle Fire. It was available for pre-order on the day it was announced. In the United States, it launched as an AT&T exclusive on July 25.
Notable for its hallmark feature "Dynamic Perspective" using four front-facing cameras and the gyroscope to track the user's movements, the phone's Fire OS adjusts the UI so it gives the impression of depth and 3D. Other notable Amazon services on the phone include X-Ray, used for identifying and finding information about media; Mayday, the 24-hour customer service tool; and Firefly, a tool for automatically recognizing text, sounds, and objects, and offering a way to buy recognized items through Amazon's online store.
The phone received mixed reviews. Critics praised the Dynamic Perspective, Firefly and, to a lesser extent, the packaged headphones, but derided the build, design, Fire OS version of Android, specifications, and exclusivity to AT&T. Amazon does not release sales figures for any of its devices, but based in part on its quickly declining prices and an announced million write-down, analysts have judged it a commercial failure. Amazon ceased production of the Fire Phone in August 2015 and discontinued sales soon after.
History
Development
The Fire Phone was rumored to be under development for several years prior to its release. Amazon reportedly started work on the phone in 2010, showing a prototype to AT&T in 2011. The first mention of a possible phone designed by Amazon appeared August 2010 in the New York Times, with a source within Lab 126 claiming; "entering the mobile phone market… seemed out of Amazon's reach. But… Amazon had not definitively rejected the idea of building a phone in the future." Shortly thereafter, some claimed Amazon might purchase WebOS from Hewlett-Packard, using its software and patents to create an Amazon phone. According to current and former employees of the company, the project for the Fire Phone started after Apple announced the iPhone 4 in 2010, and was codenamed "Tyto" for a genus of owl. Jeff Bezos reportedly "...envisioned a list of whiz-bang features... NFC for contactless payments, hands-free interactions to allow users to navigate the interface through mid-air gestures and a force-sensitive grip that could respond in different ways to various degrees of physical pressure", most of which ultimately did not end up in the final product. He also "obsessively monitored the product", requiring "even the smallest decisions needed to go by him". Frustration built up over what appeared to Lab126 workers to be extraneous features such as Dynamic Perspective, although they continued to work on the project due to the money being paid to them by Jeff Bezos.Later, in 2012, The Wall Street Journal contended that Amazon was testing a smartphone, with a screen size between four and five inches. Bloomberg also reported Amazon as looking to acquire patents in order to defend against allegations of infringement concerning the use of wireless technology of the phone. The Verge claimed "multiple sources" confirming the existence of the Amazon phone and it would be announced alongside the updated Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhite in September.
In 2013, reports claimed Amazon would partner with HTC to create a "Kindle Phone" which would be free with Amazon Prime membership. Amazon denied these rumors, stating that the company "will not launch a phone this year" and that if it did, it "would not be free". It continued to develop its phone while denying such rumours, and by 2013, it had split into two projects: "Duke" and "Otus". "Duke" was intended to be the higher end device in its portfolio, while Otus would serve as a low-cost or free alternative to Duke. Jeff Bezos later reconsidered, believing only a phone which could set itself apart, could compete against established phone manufactures such as Apple, and a lower-cost, bare-bones phone would hurt the Amazon brand. Although many rumors were not accurate, several final specs, the use of 3D, and the release date were correctly reported.
Release
The phone was introduced in Seattle in the Fremont Theatre, at a press event held by Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos. As a limited time promotion, buyers were offered a year of Amazon Prime and 1,000 Amazon coins with the purchase of a Fire Phone. Amazon's Fire Phone was priced at $199 for the 32 GB version and $299 for the 64 GB version on AT&T. The pricing range puts it on the same playing field with Android and Apple flagship smartphones. Six weeks after the introduction of the phone to the market, its price with a two-year contract was cut from $199 to $0.99 and the off-contract price went from $650 down to $449. In November 2014 the price for the unlocked version dropped to $199 and even further to $179 in April 2015. After a further price drop to $130 in August 2015, the device eventually was listed as unavailable on the Amazon site. On August 27, 2015, the "Phandroid" website reported that Amazon had discontinued the Fire Phone.Specifications
Hardware
The Fire Phone uses a 4.7-inch IPS LCD Gorilla Glass 3 polarized touchscreen display with a pixel density of 315 ppi. Its front features the screen and a rounded rectangular home button below the display. The back, made of the same Gorilla Glass, houses the camera, LED flash, and secondary microphone. The sides of the phone are made of a soft touch plastic. On the top of the phone there is a lock/power button and a 3.5 mm jack for headphones. The left side of the device has 3 buttons made of anodized aluminum: two volume buttons and a camera shortcut button. When the camera button is pressed, the camera app opens; when held down, Firefly is opened. The bottom of the phone has the primary microphone, a micro-USB connector port, and dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital sound processing.The phone uses a Snapdragon 800 chip paired with an Adreno 330 GPU and 2 GB of RAM. Internal storage is non-expandable, with options of 32 GB or 64 GB. The rear camera is a 13 MP CMOS sensor with an f/2.0 five-element wide aperture lens with OIS. The battery is non-removable and has a capacity of 2400 mAh; Amazon claims this provides up to 22 hours of talk time and up to 85 hours of standby time.
The head tracking "dynamic perspective" camera array used a set of four low-resolution wide angle IR cameras and IR illuminators, synchronised with a global camera shutter. The computer vision algorithms were executed on a dedicated custom low power processor.
According to the product teardown site iFixit, the BOM of the Fire Phone is estimated to be approximately $205; this figure is higher than the IPhone 5S but lower than the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Accessories
Included with the phone are earbuds Amazon claims to be "tangle-free"; the earbud tips can be attached to each other magnetically and also have a flat cable in order to minimize tangling. These earbuds can be purchased separately as a standalone accessory. Also included with the phone are the USB cable and power adaptor, as well as a quick start guide. The phone is available only in black, but first-party cases can be purchased in black/cayenne leather or black/cayenne/citron/blue/royal polyurethane.Operating system and software
Similar to the Kindle Fire tablets, the Fire Phone uses a forked version of Android called Fire OS. The Fire Phone was preloaded with version 3.5 of Fire OS, which is based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The fork replaces Google's default UI with a carousel of recently accessed content and apps, and also serves to promote Amazon's various services. A new feature introduced with the Fire Phone is the presence of "active widgets", widgets underneath the icon showing recent activity and/or information about the app. Pre-loaded applications on the Fire Phone include Amazon Appstore, Amazon Video, Amazon Music, Amazon's Silk browser, and Audible Audiobooks. Although the phone uses Android, it does not have Google Play Store pre-installed. As of Fire OS 3.6.8, Google Play and Google Services can be easily sideloaded. An update, Fire OS 3.5.1, brought quick app switching, folders, pinning of apps on the home screen, improved photo taking capabilities, sending of high resolution videos via MMS, and improved battery life.Also introduced with the Fire Phone is a three-panel design for apps: the leftmost panel displays settings, the center panel is the main screen for apps, and the rightmost panel is used for "delights" - features specific to an app. The example given at the press conference was the music app: the main panel displays the music playing, the left panel shows navigation and settings, and the right panel shows the "delight" of live song lyrics.
Using the four front cameras and the gyroscope, the Fire Phone provides shortcuts based on the orientation of the device. Marketed as "Dynamic Perspective" with actions such as tilt, swivel,'' and peek'', they allow a user to navigate menus/access shortcuts, view notifications, and reveal quick actions respectively. This also allows a user to scroll through a webpage or flip a page in a book by tilting the phone.
Photos taken with the Fire Phone are automatically backed up to Amazon's Cloud Drive; Amazon offers unlimited photo storage for this device.
Mayday and Firefly are also selling points of the phone. Mayday is a free, 24-hour customer support service for users of Amazon's devices, allowing the customer service access to the device in order to show a user particular functions of their device. Firefly uses the camera and microphone to identify objects that can be bought from Amazon or to scan useful information. An update added the ability to translate text, as well as identify famous pieces of art.
The Fire Phone can also send its screen to any Miracast enabled device, including the Fire TV, Xbox, Sony PlayStation 3/4, or select Samsung Smart TVs. It can also function as a second screen.