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According to a recent report, the Amazon Fire Phone is set to make a comeback over a decade after the retailer's first device flopped. Now, Amazon is addressing rumors directly, but it remains unclear what sort of device it's working on.
In a new interview with the Financial Times, Amazon’s head of devices and services, Panos Panay, referenced rumors, saying he doesn’t believe the smartphone market will go away anytime soon.
Panay said, “I think your black and white question is, are you going after a phone? A lot of people want me to say no, but a lot of people want me to say yes, I get it. Here’s my take: it’s not necessarily [that] we’re going after a phone, no.”
He continued, “If I black and white say no, I would say that was accurate. But I also think it’s misleading.” This may be Panay's way of suggesting Amazon is experimenting with phone-like tech, but it's unlikely to be released in a way customers would expect.
Panay also said, “What I won’t ever do again is [go to the customer and say] here’s another phone. What do you think? There’s no point. We know what customers need right now.”
These comments suggest that Amazon knows that competing with Apple and Android phone makers in the ultra-competitive smartphone market is unlikely to succeed. However, he won’t deny that Amazon is experimenting with some sort of mobile device.
For now, what Amazon plans is unclear, but these comments are the first confirmation that it's developing something akin to a mobile phone.
A previous Reuters report, quoting four anonymous sources, suggested that Amazon was experimenting with a phone-like device codenamed "Transformer" to access its Alexa AI voice assistant.
Some sources said Amazon was considering a dumb phone, similar to the Light Phone series, that uses black-and-white matte OLED displays to discourage addictive smartphone use.