The speculation around Amazon and their mobile aspirations haven’t let up, and ever since the first reports of a Kindle smartphone nearly two years ago we’ve been waiting to see what they have planned. Well, recently we’ve been hearing a lot more rumors about Amazon’s Kindle smartphone, but this latest one sure takes the cake. Talks of a free device, one that’s completely off contract.
Crazy right? We know carriers offer free smartphones, but that’s usually when someone gets hand-cuffed into a 2-year contract. Amazon is obviously trying vigorously to find a footing in an already crowded mobile market, and this could be exactly how. Thanks to +TaylorWimberly, who tipped us off about countless Moto X news, we’re now getting details regarding the Amazon smartphone.
However, they aren’t from Taylor himself and instead come from Jessica Lessin, who previously wrote for the Wall Street Journal. Who if you remember, was the first to break the Kindle Smartphone news. According to her sources, Amazon wants to offer the phone up for free, but we’re not exactly sure how they’ll complete that task. Smartphones cost money to build, more so than tablets, and they’ll need manufacturers on board that are willing to take the risk.
People close to the matter are saying this is one of many things currently being planned or thought up by Amazon, but it isn’t yet set in stone. They could offer the phone for free, as long as customers were a part of their Amazon Prime subscription, which is already an awesome deal to begin with. So we can’t see that being the end play. One important quote from Jessica was this one below:
“the people familiar with the matter said that Amazon wants the device to be free whether or not people sign up for a new wireless plan at the same time.”
Meaning, even if you don’t sign a new wireless plan (or contract) they want to give the phone out for free. Which makes us wonder where the difference will be. Google struggles enough as it is offering the Nexus 4 for such a low price, but make that back from the Play Store.
Could we see an Amazon Kindle smartphone absolutely free with a few lockscreen (or other) ads and “suggested content” in our faces like they do with their cheaper Kindle tablets. If you remember, their latest Fire HD had suggestions for items, and there is no way to remove those from your screen. Amazon suggests their content to you, right on your own device. An end result is the device wasn’t quite as expensive initially.
Jessica goes into detail about a lot of other possibilities, and it’s certainly a good read. We’re not sure what Amazon has planned, but a free smartphone running a skinned version of Android could really shake things up. Especially if it was ran on a Satellite network, instead of the usual US carriers.
Thoughts?
VIA: Jessica Lessin
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