Amazon May Hand Out Free Kindle Smartphones

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this would work because the average consumer is a complete idiot when it comes to handling finances, so a cheaper up front cost ALWAYS boosts sales.

that being said, if it's a reasonable plan, i don't mind locking down on a contract giving the phone is a very capable one and the monthly bill doesn't go over $50
 
The author is correct when he says these are Android-BASED phones. Like pretty much all the Android-based phones out there (with the exception of Google Editions and the Nexus devices) are like that, most of them are also certified by Google (meaning access to Google Apps and Play), whereas a few don't meet the requirements and are limited in terms of the apps availability. That being said, I expect these phones to have full access to Amazon Appstore, which contains pretty much all the apps from GPlay (except for GApps, of course, but these can be easily replaced with equivalent apps from Playstore).
Since Android is a linux based open sourced OS, it is available to any manufacturer, who in turn can modify it to it's liking. Some out there are pretty succesfull at that (HTC, Samsung, Huawei, Sony etc) while a few obscure ones choose to heavily modify it.
This correct distinction is seldom encountered on so-called tech sites (this one is usually no exception), but even when outlined correctly, it is still glanced over by readers (they stop reading at Android and ignore the BASED part) and in turn feeds some ubiquitous [ignorant] trolls on said websites.
 
One, I highly doubt Amazon, or anyone, can swing a completely free phone. Those seemingly "free" phones require a contract because in the fine print the cost of the phone is a part of the contract, meaning you terminate the contract you owe a prorated fee to pay off the phone. A completely free phone would likely trigger suspicion by the SEC, FTC, and/or the Justice Department that Amazon is trying to unfairly game the market. A very old strategy for achieving a monopoly is to severely undercut the price of the competition, despite taking huge losses, so that your competition loses business, has to get out the market, and then you're the only one left in the market to charge as you please. That's how the first monopolies started, so regulators are gonna pay real close attention if Amazon tries to do this.
 
This is a terrible idea for Amazon. Many people would just hoard it to use it as a backup or resell it.

They have to tie it with something else. Maybe get 1 free with Amazon prime or when you buy a $200 gift card (or larger amount). A more traditional approach would be to make it a free contract phone.
 


Resell it for what? It's free. Who's gonna buy something that's free?
 
"We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said during the Kindle launch last year.


For some reason, I feel slightly worried over this statement.
 
Amazon is still in its infancy when it comes to full-service devices, IMHO. I bought a KFHD 7" and used it for a few months. It was plagued with constant slow-downs, cease of responsiveness, app crashes (even their browser crashed too frequently). Not to mention I suspect that the graphics were horribly underpowered given the screen resolution.

I would not tolerate such things on my phone, so hopefully they have a strong development and testing regime to put potential phone handsets through, more rigorous than their tablets. I really wanted to give the KFHD a shot, but the performance issues coupled with the loss of capabilities vs. basic android, I got rid of it. I use Amazon services a lot, but I still would not use their tablets (or phones). E-readers is a separate thing that I have no problem with (but don't have one myself).
 
I'm pretty sure if this is true, it'd be Prime-only. Just handing them out free to everyone would be plain stupid. Still very curious of how this phone would work out.
 
Not sure I would use a Kindle phone even if it was free. I've been less than impressed every time I use the Fire. Amazon's interface compared to stock Android is frankly annoying.
 
Well Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo (typically) take a loss on selling their consoles so that they can make profits when games sell.

Example: Sony and Microsoft took a loss when they sold a new console... but for each game that was sold they got a percentage or a fixed amount. (Even when the game was made by another company.) That amount was WAAAY higher than the amount they lost.

I believe that is Amazon's goal here. Get their devices into everyone's hands and people will start buying content. While that may be true I don't think I would pay for much content, certainly not enough to make up for the amount they would loose out on so I'm gonna have to say I will believe it when I see it on this one.
 


My sister has a Kindle, I HATE the UI. I won't use it or buy one because of it.
 
This isn't such a bad thing for some people I suspect. On the other hand, it's hardly new, nor is the phone truly "free" if you actually intend to use it with a phone plan, I suspect. The cost of the phone is undoubtedly built into the plan offered, which is nothing new.

Simple fact though, phone plans work well for some people. Dropping $500+ for an unlocked device and then paying for a less expensive plan doesn't work for some people as well as paying next to nothing for the phone and then paying more per month for a two or three year locked in contract.
 
The product range offers and Amazon have made their website, a portal to get quality items at very attractive prices, this coupled with its tablet, which is a very good device, thanks to the efforts of Jeff Bezos (http://www.officegraphicdesign.com/web-design-miami ).
 
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