Amazon burned its fingers with the Fire Phone back in 2014. The device, personally overseen by Jeff Bezos, lasted barely over a year before Amazon pulled the plug and wrote off $170 million in unsold inventory. Now, the company is taking another shot at the smartphone market.
According to Reuters, Amazon is developing a new phone internally under the codename “Transformer.” The project is part of a group called ZeroOne, which focuses on building breakthrough devices. It is led by J Allard, a former Microsoft executive who helped bring the Xbox and Zune to market.
What will the Amazon phone actually do?
The phone is being designed as a personalization device, one that keeps you connected to Alexa, Prime Video, Prime Music, and Amazon shopping throughout your day. A key focus is AI integration, which could eliminate the need for traditional app stores entirely. Think less scrolling through apps and more just asking Alexa to get things done.
The concept is similar to what Carl Pei described as the future of Nothing phones in his recent SXSW interview.
Interestingly, Amazon has also explored a “dumbphone” version with limited features, partly inspired by the Light Phone. A simpler device could help Amazon pitch it as a second phone that cuts through the noise rather than adding to it.
Will it actually work this time?
That’s the big question. The Fire Phone failed because it lacked popular apps, overheated, and gave people very little reason to ditch their iPhones or Android devices. Amazon faces the same challenge now, with Apple and Samsung still controlling roughly 40% of global smartphone sales between them.
Amazon is betting that a phone built around Alexa and its massive ecosystem might be different. Whether consumers agree is another story entirely. The timeline for Transformer remains unclear, and Reuters notes it could still be scrapped.
In my opinion, the dumbphone idea would be a better starting point for Amazon. Competing in an already saturated smartphone market would be difficult, so positioning an AI-powered “dumbphone” as a secondary device that assists with shopping could be an idea users get behind.