More than a decade after the Fire Phone, Amazon is reportedly planning to release a new smartphone, this time with a focus on Alexa. According to Reuters, the phone, codenamed “Transformer,” will focus on Amazon’s AI assistant, though Alexa won’t necessarily be the phone’s primary operating system.
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The “Transformer” is currently under development at ZeroOne , led by J Allard, who previously worked on the Zune and Apple at Microsoft. Allard’s team has looked at both smartphone and “dumbphone” designs, drawing inspiration from the minimalist Light Phone , which has a black-and-white screen and no app store.
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App availability was a major challenge for the original Fire Phone, and something Amazon may be trying to avoid entirely this time around. According to people familiar with the new phone, “integrating AI capabilities into the device” was a central focus, which could mean the “Transformer” could rely on mini apps like those available on ChatGPT, rather than a full app store.
There is still no timeline for when Amazon will release the “Transformer”, if it ever does, or how much it could cost. The original Fire Phone was released at $199, but it failed to win over the public and Amazon withdrew it a year after its launch. Amazon is trying to keep pace with its competitors in artificial intelligence in recent years, which could drive it to revive its ambitions for a smartphone.
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However, it may still face an uphill battle to win over users with the revamped version of Alexa — users posted complaints online after the automatic upgrade to Alexa Plus with LLM earlier this year, saying it was “full of ads” and took longer to answer questions.
