Ever wish you could control your home Alexa from your phone? Someday soon, you may be able to.
Amazon is rumored to be launching a new smartphone, dubbed “Transformer” internally, according to Reuters. The phone aims to be a “mobile personalization device” that syncs with Amazon’s smart assistant Alexa and is reportedly under development within Amazon’s devices and services unit.
If the rumor is accurate, this is Amazon’s latest attempt to develop a smartphone after the 2014 launch of its Fire Phone, which was personally overseen by founder Jeff Bezos — and was scrapped nearly a year later in one of the company’s biggest flops.
The Fire Phone came with features that included a 3D display system and vision technology to identify objects. The difference now is that artificial intelligence is much further along and far smarter.
Streamlining Amazon services
An internal team known as ZeroOne is reportedly spearheading the project with a mandate to create “breakthrough” gadgets, led by former Microsoft executive J Allard, who is known for his work on Xbox and Zune.
Bezos had envisioned a smartphone focused on shopping that could compete with Apple by offering Prime members shipping convenience and discounts. In the process, Amazon would have access to valuable new data on users’ purchase history and content preferences, available only through mobile phones.
The goal is for the phone to make interacting with various Amazon services more seamless, such as watching Prime Video, listening to Prime Music, or ordering food from partners like Grubhub, Reuters reported.
Integrating AI into the device is a main focus of the Transformer project, according to Reuters. This would remove the step of users having to download and register for applications from app stores.
It is unclear whether Alexa would be the phone’s main operating system, along with the timeline for Amazon Transformer, and the company’s level of investment in the project. Reuters reported that its sources cautioned the smartphone “could be scrapped if the strategy shifts or due to financial concerns.”
Who will lead the AI smartphone race?
AI-embedded hardware has had a short and unimpressive history, with failures including the wearable Humane AI pin and the Rabbit R1 assistant, both of which attempted to provide access to generative AI without requiring users to log in to computers or mobile phones.
Neither gained momentum, and the Humane pin was discontinued. But others continue to work on AI-native devices that eliminate the need to download apps.
OpenAI has partnered with former Apple design chief Jony Ive to develop different hardware prototypes, while Apple, Google, and Meta are working on new AI-embedded glasses, watches, and headphones.
The jury is still out on whether Amazon can draw on lessons from past mistakes and produce a smartphone that would challenge industry leaders like Apple and Samsung.
“The idea that Amazon would want to get into the intensely competitive mobile devices market is surprising,” said Ben Wood, a mobile industry expert and chief marketing officer at CCS Insight.
Yet, the opportunity for Amazon to produce a smartphone exists, Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of data and analytics at IDC, wrote in a research note, adding the company “brings together a powerful services ecosystem spanning commerce, content, cloud, and an existing AI foundation with Alexa, along with deep expertise in data-driven customer engagement.”
Also read: Amazon’s AI device strategy is already taking shape through Alexa+, which is expanding across the company’s hardware ecosystem in the US.
