Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a – Business News
In 2014, Amazon launched its first smartphone, hoping to tackle Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone — overseen immediately by founder Jeff Bezos — was scrapped in exactly over a 12 months, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops.
Now, Amazon is dialing up a new telephone.
The newest effort, recognized internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its units and companies unit, in line with 4 people aware of the matter. The telephone is seen as a potential cellular personalization machine that may sync with home voice assistant Alexa and function a conduit to Amazon prospects all through the day, the people stated.
Amazon’s Fire Phone was scrapped a 12 months after it was first launched in 2014. REUTERS
The initiative is the most recent chapter in a years-long effort to carry to market Bezos’ long-held imaginative and prescient of a ubiquitous voice-driven computing assistant akin to the voice-controlled pc in science fiction collection “Star Trek.”
Bezos had envisioned a smartphone that had procuring at its core and will tackle Apple by offering transport comfort and reductions by means of the Prime membership. Along the best way, Amazon may gain a wealth of new information about customers solely out there by means of cellphones mixed with buy historical past and content material preferences.
Amazon’s effort to develop a new smartphone has not been beforehand reported. Reuters couldn’t decide some particulars, such because the anticipated price of the telephone, the income Amazon hopes to generate, or the financial dedication Amazon has made to the project.
The timeline for Amazon’s Transformer project can also be unclear, and the people cautioned it could possibly be scrapped if the strategy shifts or because of financial considerations.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to remark for this story.
As envisioned, the new telephone’s personalization options would make shopping for from Amazon.com, watching Prime Video, listening to Prime Music or ordering food from companions like Grubhub simpler than ever, the people stated. They requested for anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to debate inside issues.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had envisioned a smartphone that had procuring at its core and will tackle Apple. REUTERS
A key focus of the Transformer project has been integrating artificial intelligence capabilities into the machine, the people stated. That may get rid of the need for conventional app shops, which require downloading and registering for purposes earlier than they can be utilized.
Alexa would seemingly be a core function however not essentially the first working system of the telephone, the people stated.
Indeed, the short historical past of AI-embedded {hardware} is full of failed entrants, together with the Humane AI pin and Rabbit R1 assistant which each sought to make generative AI out there with out the need to log in to computer systems or cellphones. Following poor essential receptions, the devices have been discontinued.
Bezos wished to offer a smartphone that would offer transport comfort and reductions by means of Amazon’s Prime membership. REUTERS
That has not deterred others from pursuing AI-native units that eliminate the app-driven visible language of smartphones. OpenAI is working with former Apple design chief Jony Ive on a number of {hardware} prototypes, whereas Apple, Google and Meta are developing new AI-embedded glasses and different units, corresponding to watches and headphones.
While Amazon’s AWS is dominant in offering world cloud computing infrastructure, the company has sought to beat a status for being flat-footed in offering AI purposes as rivals have sped forward.
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Alexa, which underwent a multi-year AI-led revamp earlier than its new launch in 2025, is seen internally as essential to Amazon’s future in consumer-facing companies. The telephone, the people stated, is one other attempt by Amazon to speed up prospects’ AI utilization both on the machine or by means of Alexa.
Amazon’s initial entry into the smartphone market in 2014 included options corresponding to a camera-based procuring software that acknowledged merchandise, discovered them for sale on Amazon.com and put them in prospects’ online carts.
The Fire Phone’s proprietary Fire OS lacked standard apps out there within the Android and iOS app shops, and had a difficult multi‑digital camera screen system for displaying 3D photos that used a lot battery energy that the handset usually overheated.
Amazon’s first telephone included a camera-based procuring software that acknowledged merchandise, discovered them for sale on Amazon.com and put them in prospects’ online carts. REUTERS
Amazon packaged the Fire Phone with a free 12 months of Amazon Prime, however it nonetheless offered poorly. Amazon cut the price from $649 unlocked to $159 and finally canceled the telephone after 14 months, taking a $170 million charge for unsold stock.
Colin Sebastian, analyst at financial firm R.W. Baird, stated the truth that Amazon has failed earlier than with a smartphone doesn’t make it insurmountable to strive again, however cautioned that it will likely be tough. “Amazon will have to give consumers a compelling reason to switch phones and people are pretty attached to the existing app stores,” he stated.
As it did over a decade in the past, Amazon faces the daunting activity of unseating market leaders Apple and Samsung, which collectively commanded about 40% of world gross sales final 12 months, in line with Counterpoint Research, a technology-focused market analysis firm.
And smartphone shipments are headed for his or her greatest decline ever in 2026, anticipated to plunge 13%, in line with International Data Corporation, as surging reminiscence chip costs drive up machine prices.
Amazon’s project is being led by a within its units unit referred to as ZeroOne, whose mandate is to create “breakthrough” devices. REUTERS
The project is being led by a year-old group within Amazon’s units unit referred to as ZeroOne, whose mandate is to create “breakthrough” devices, the people stated. ZeroOne is led by J Allard, a former Microsoft government concerned in such units because the Zune music participant and Xbox gaming console.
The head of Amazon’s units and companies unit, Panos Panay, has been working to reverse years of unprofitability within the division. That contains a forthcoming pill that may—for the primary time—run Android as an alternative of Fire OS and will sell for round $400, which Reuters was first to report.
Three people who’ve labored on the Transformer project stated the telephone continues to be underneath development. The company has explored each a conventional smartphone and a so‑referred to as “dumbphone” with more restricted options that would help counter screen habit. Amazon has not but sought wi-fi service companions for the machine, these people stated.
One inspiration for the new telephone has been the Light Phone, two of the people stated, a $700 minimalist smartphone with a digital camera, map, calendar and never a lot else, corresponding to an app store or web browser.
A dumbphone or function telephone may additionally help Amazon market it as a potential second handset to accompany iPhones and Samsung Galaxies already in prospects’ pockets, the people stated. Such handsets, just like the Light Phone and flip telephones, accounted for 15% of world handset gross sales in 2025, in line with Counterpoint Research.
Scant information exists on how many people carry more than one telephone, stated Chetan Sharma, an unbiased wi-fi analyst. Nowadays, he stated, the follow is most common amongst white-collar staff who need a second telephone away from the prying eyes of their employers or mother and father who need a machine to offer to youngsters to restrict entry to social media.
