SEATTLE -- IDC analyst Tom Mainelli asked the right question before the start of Amazon's launch event for the Fire Phone this morning here in Seattle: "Will the Amazon phone offer enough to get people to give up their iPhones and Android phones?"
A good 'vending machine'
Tuong Nguyen, will be whether it provides a good place to buy and consume Amazon products. He give Amazon high scores here.
The cost problem
$200 price tag on a 32GB phone with a two-year contract certainly isn't one of the phone's selling points. That price is as much as any high-end phone from Apple or Samsung.
“If you’re Amazon, you're telling people ‘you’ve just bought a vending machine, now go buy stuff,’” Greengart told me immediately after the event.
Greengart isn’t completely sold on the 3D functionality, either. “They are mainly promoting the 3D technology with this phone, but other than the mapping functions, it’s not immediately clear if the technology is really useful, or just cool,” he said.
Lighting a 'Fire' under handset makers
In order to lure iPhone owners to the Fire Phone, Bezos needed to prove to the world today that his company had made a device that is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in ease-of-use and functionality. If consumers don't see it that way, the Fire Phone will just be an expensive 3D phone.
But taking a broader view of the whole thing, Bezos and company have definitely brought some new ideas to the party, and that might push other players in the industry to innovate better and faster.
“It is always great when a new company enters the market as provides a fresh look on a true and tried product," Recon Analytics founder Roger Entner told VentureBeat via an email statement.