Amazon may offer upcoming smartphone for free

[MontyAC]

I'll be interested.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101015435

 

[saratoga172]

I'm interested to hear what they have to offer. Before I get too excited I'll wait until something if official.

 

[Crono]

I don't want to be in their ecosystem, but I would still check it out out of curiosity.

Right now I am glad that their Kindle app is on nearly all platforms, along with Nook.

 

[desura]

Knowing Amazon...the big thing that they could do would be to pull a better version of Republic Wireless.

 

[Ravynmagi]

This is even better than the $200 Moto X rumor.

I don't believe it.

Free phones don't make any sense. It would be completely impossible for Amazon to meet the manufacturing demands for a free phone and would greatly upset the Amazon loyalist that would actually pay money for it and can't get it because it's backordered until 2017.

I think there are plenty of people that would play $200 for a nice budget Amazon phone.

If Amazon does give away a "free" phone, I suspect it'll be tied to requiring an $80 Amazon Prime subscription. Or possibly some new more expensive subscription plan they might roll out.

 

[ultimatebob]

I believe that Amazon would try this, but would they would require a cell phone contract just like everyone else.

Seriously... is this really all that different than those "$49" iPhone 4's and year old Android phones that require a two year contract to purchase? Just make the phone free, and add some ads to the lock screen like the Kindle Fire.

If Amazon did require a Prime subscription with the phone, that would sweeten the deal for them even more.

Oh, and that "temporary" tech news blog site sure looks fishy as hell.

 

[Joe1987]

I dunno, if this was sustainable/doable, they would have done it with a Kindle already

 

[Crono]

Oh, and that "temporary" tech news blog site sure looks fishy as hell.

Lessin is one of the biggest names in tech journalism.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I believe that Amazon would try this, but would they would require a cell phone contract just like everyone else.

Seriously... is this really all that different than those "$49" iPhone 4's and year old Android phones that require a two year contract to purchase? Just make the phone free, and add some ads to the lock screen like the Kindle Fire.

If Amazon did require a Prime subscription with the phone, that would sweeten the deal for them even more.

Oh, and that "temporary" tech news blog site sure looks fishy as hell.

If it's just a free phone on a 2 year contract, that isn't even news worthy.

 

[Crono]

Considering how cheap it is to manufacture a phone, it's possible they are manufacturing them for $40 or less each, and then expecting to make up much more than that with ad sponsoring and the usual Amazon services, app store, and marketplace.

Cell phone components are cheap now, especially at the low end. Amazon doesn't need to have a profit margin on the hardware. Same reason Google made Chromecasts for so cheap, though they might have made a little profit on those. Amazon has pay services that can reap profit directly while some of Google's tactics are more roundabout or indirect, so giving away phones isn't out of the realm of possibility. I'd bet Amazon was waiting a while for the hardware to get to this level.

I have 2 $80 phones in my possession, the Nokia Lumia 521 and the ZTE Open, both off-contract (and stock unlocked, in the case of the Open). I'm sure Nokia and ZTE made some profit directly from those phones, so I would bet Amazon could make a half-decent phone at $50 each and give them away. There will have to be some conditions, of course, to keep people from just harvesting the hardware or reselling them. Probably tied to an Amazon Prime account or a "verified" account and limited to one per account or something.

 

[Crono]

Apparently it's not happening:
http://www.businessinsider.com/neve...&utm_medium=referral&utm_term=mobilesrepublic

 

[ultimatebob]

Yep, story denied by Amazon:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101018172

I guess that Lessin's Fish and Chips news blog isn't the bastion of dependable tech journalism that we thought it was

 

[Red Storm]

I don't think we'll see an Amazon phone until color e-ink is out.

 

[st_7]

Yup, the site(or person) that CNBC quoted, got updates from Amazon that they won't be releasing any phone this year, even if they release it(some time during next year) they won't be giving it out for free. This is the site of Jessicalessin, the popular tech journalist that CNBC quoted.

 

[pcslookout]

I will be more interested if they offer free 4G wireless internet on their phones and tablets.

 

[lopri]

I don't know what Amazon can gain from giving out phones instead of tablets or e-readers? And those who might consider "free" Kindles are likely to already have Amazon/Kindle apps installed on their Android/iOS tablets anyway.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I don't know what Amazon can gain from giving out phones instead of tablets or e-readers? And those who might consider "free" Kindles are likely to already have Amazon/Kindle apps installed on their Android/iOS tablets anyway.

Amazon wants to trap you into their eco system. So that you have to buy their books, music, movies and apps from them.