Fire Phone
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Amazon Fire Phone
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| Manufacturer | Foxconn |
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| Compatible networks | UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz), Quad-band GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 17, 20) |
| First released | 25 July 2014 |
| Availability by country | United States, United Kingdom, Germany |
| Discontinued | 27 August 2015 |
| Type | Smartphone |
| Form factor | Slate |
| Dimensions | 139.2 mm (5.48 in) H 66.5 mm (2.62 in) W 8.9 mm (0.35 in) D |
| Weight | 160 g (5.64 oz) |
| Operating system |
Original Fire OS 3.5 Current Fire OS 4.6.5 (AT&T version), 4.6.6.1 (unlocked version). |
| System on chip | Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 |
| CPU | 2.26 GHz quad-core Krait 400 |
| GPU | Adreno 330 |
| Memory | 2 GB RAM |
| Storage | 32 or 64 GB |
| Battery | 2400 mAh |
| Display | 4.7 in (120 mm) IPS LCD Gorilla Glass 3 1280×720 px (315 ppi) |
| Rear camera | 13 MP CMOS sensor with OIS |
| Front camera | 2.1 MP |
| Connectivity |
Bluetooth 3.0 GPS Micro USB NFC Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac |
| Website | www.amazon.com/firephone |
The Fire Phone was a 3D-enabled smartphone developed by Amazon.com and manufactured by Foxconn. It was announced on June 18, 2014, and marked Amazon's first foray into the smartphone market, following the success of the Kindle Fire. It was available for pre-order on the day it was announced. In the United States, it launched as an AT&T exclusive on July 25.
The phone was notable for its hallmark feature "Dynamic Perspective": using four front-facing cameras and the gyroscope to track the user's movements, the OS adjusts the UI so that it gives the impression of depth and 3D. Other notable Amazon services on the phone include X-Ray, used for identifying and finding information about media; Mayday, the 24-hour customer service tool; and Firefly, a tool that automatically recognizes text, sounds, and objects, then offering a way to buy recognized items through Amazon's online store.
The phone had received mixed reviews. Critics had praised the Dynamic Perspective, Firefly and, to a lesser extent, the packaged headphones, but derided the build, design, Fire OS version of Android, specifications, and exclusivity to AT&T. Amazon had not released sales figures for any of its devices, but based in part on its quickly declining prices and an announced $170 million write-down, analysts have judged that it had not been commercially successful. Amazon stopped selling the phone in August 2015, and has not announced a followup model, leading to speculations that the device has been cancelled.
The Fire Phone was rumored to be under development for several years prior to its release. Amazon reportedly started work on the phone in 2010, showing a prototype to AT&T in 2011. The first mention of a possible phone designed by Amazon appeared August 2010 in the New York Times, with a source within Lab 126 claiming that "entering the mobile phone market… seemed out of Amazon's reach. But… Amazon had not definitively rejected the idea of building a phone in the future." Shortly thereafter, some claimed that Amazon might purchase WebOS from Hewlett-Packard, using its software and patents to build a phone. According to current and former employees of the company, the project for the Fire Phone started after Apple announced the iPhone 4 in 2010, and was codenamed "Tyto" for a genus of owl. Jeff Bezos reportedly "...envisioned a list of whiz-bang features... NFC for contactless payments, hands-free interactions to allow users to navigate the interface through mid-air gestures and a force-sensitive grip that could respond in different ways to various degrees of physical pressure", most of which ultimately did not end up in the final product. He also "obsessively monitored the product", requiring that "even the smallest decisions needed to go by him". Frustration built up over what appeared to Lab126 workers to be extraneous features such as Dynamic Perspective, although they continued to work on the project due to the respect they held for Jeff Bezos.
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