Amazon certainly wants to be more than just an e-commerce, online shopping website. The past years, the company has ventured in mobile hardware business by releasing the Kindle reader which later on paved the way for several smartphones and tablets. There’s the Kindle Fire, Fire HD, Fire HDX, and Fire HD 6/7/8/10. The Amazon Echo introduced in 2014 is still doing well. Sadly, the Fire Phone didn’t exactly become a bestseller. Amazon offered discounts several times and then went out of stock a few months ago.
We heard about Amazon’s plan to scale back development of consumer devices and looks like it’s happening. Amazon didn’t confirm the information then but the company is still determined to have a place in the mobile arena. This time, no new devices but it just wants to work with other OEMs to integrate the services into handsets. The idea is to bring Amazon services and apps to their phones.
Amazon has ready solutions for Android from the app store to mobile ads, authentication, in-app purchases and more. We respect Amazon if it wants to pursue this service integration with OEMs but most of them now have contracts with Google providing all products and services. We’re not sure how Amazon will enter the picture now. Then again, it can do ala CyanogenOS. Let’s see if and how Amazon will remain in the mobile business.
VIA: ArsTechnica
Given that Amazon forked Android, they made it difficult to compete properly with Google’s Android. They needed to grow an ecosystem that they could grow. Given the fact that Google also forces OEMs to sign contract after contract so as to prevent competition on the app store front, they made it impossible for Amazon to properly compete. So, Amazon was going to be a loner, without any hope for them to have others join them in their fight, since it was a gamble if Amazon would succeed. They didn’t, and now we’re stuck with two ecosystems of apps, that even the likes of BlackBerry was forced to adopt, in the face of extinction if they didn’t. That’s not to say BlackBerry 10 or Android are bad, it’s just telling how screwed other vendors who want to do their own thing become. Samsung risks this too with Tizen. So… It’s not exclusive to Amazon failing this way. I just worry that Android being the one ecosystem with Google Play will discourage other app ecosystems from even being able to be cost effective or worth supporting at all. That’s a shame. There should never be a duopoly/monopoly, and that’s a fault of the OEMs and carriers willing to be a part of creating the duopoly. Google has too much clout in smartphone land, and if Amazon were to try again, it could spell disaster. Here’s hoping they avoid the embarrassment of trying again.
There’s alot of people who don’t do money on the internet. I even closed my Paypal as it’s last security policy preamble was unintelligable. Heartbleed, NFC cautions, £’s to $’s + shipping, difficult comeback if things break….nah, let’s go to the local store…