The Amazon Fire phone, launched in 2014, was an unmitigated disaster for the company, and it’s been keeping its distance from the space ever since. However, back in March a report surfaced claiming the company was developing an AI-powered phone.
If you’ve been anxiously expecting it to happen, we have some bad news. According to Amazon’s boss for consumer electronics Panos Panay, Amazon isn’t “necessarily” doing a phone, since “there’s no clear path that makes sense” for the company in this space right now.
He didn’t fully, 100%, black-on-white deny it, though, so do keep that in mind. In fact, he gave such a convoluted answer when asked about this by the FT that it’s worth quoting in full:
It’s just not the goal. I know there’s a lot of rumors out there. I don’t think the phone form factor is going away anytime soon. I’ve said that publicly. I keep saying it. I always get asked, ‘so the phone’s gone, right?’ Absolutely not. The phone’s not going anywhere. However, I think the phone is going through some transformation, and will continue to do so over the next 10 years, for sure. 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. There’s no clear path that makes sense. You just said it, there’s so many new form factors that are important that need to be focused on. It’s a tricky question. If I black and white say no, I would say that was accurate. But I also think it’s misleading. One of the most incredible parts of the culture here is the willingness to make a big bet when you need to. And the question is, when do you need to? Well, what’s the right thing for the customer over time? There’s always opportunity, but right now, no. What I won’t ever do again is say here’s another phone. What do you think? There’s no point. We know what customers need right now.
So, TL;DR: “Right now, no”. Maybe in the future, but not in the near future – that’s our takeaway from this word soup. Are you sad that Amazon isn’t trying its hand at the smartphone game again (at least not yet)? Let us know in the comments.