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Amazon.com announces Fire phone

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firephone1The speculation, anticipation, theories and rumors are done. Amazon.com has now made the announcement of the release of a new smartphone, designed and manufactured by their hardware lab and running their own proprietary software. The Fire Phone, installed with Dynamic Display and running Firefly is now available.

Reaction to the release has been from one extreme to the other. Those who like the phone report they are very impressed with the 3-D look and feel, the tilt-controlled navigating aspect, and the ability of Firefly to quickly assess and identify literally millions of objects around it as potential sale items and send the user to where they can be purchased on, of course, Amazon.com.

The other smartphones currently available are interacted with by their users more than one hundred times a day, on average. Most of these usages are either the starting of an app, the picking from a list, or the use of the keyboard.  Most users do not want this oft-repeated process to be overly cinematic. Just give me the keyboard, please. I really do not want music and animations and vibrations involved with every move I make. It would become overwhelming, yet at the same time, boring.

Google, Apple, Samsung and other successful designers of user interfaces have learned this lesson the hard way, via user complaints, or plummeting sales and usage. They have balanced the “sense of wonder” felt by the user with the mundane, every-day need for speed and efficiency.firephone2

Amazon may be in for a sharp learning curve with its new toy. The interface, at first blush, seems a little too magical, a little too bombastic to become a normal, often used tool. However, the power of Firefly is undeniable. A mere touch on the Firefly app and the phone knows not only where you are, but what you can see around you. It even knows what you cannot see. CDs, DVDs, paper books, appliances, TV’s, any item you can buy, can be scanned by your Fire phone. Then, with a burst (or several bursts) of light, you are shown various choices for the object of your desire, and numerous options to purchase it, or to research further. Likewise, any audio you hear can be picked up and picked out by your Fire phone, and access, via online download purchase or physical media purchase, is easily provided. It’s a shopper’s delight, and a seller’s magic wand.

firephone3Most predictions say Amazon will need to tone down the special effects, but the idea and workings of the Fire phone are here to stay, and will soon be emulated by the other phone providers.

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