More than a decade after the failure of Fire Phone, Amazon is planning to return to the smartphone market with a completely new internal project called "Transformer".
The Fire Phone launched in 2014 under the direct supervision of Jeff Bezos was once expected to compete with Apple and Samsung. However, the product quickly failed and was discontinued after 14 months, causing Amazon to lose about 170 million USD.
It is known that the new device will be developed in Amazon's device and service division, aiming to become a "mobile personal assistant" connecting throughout the company's ecosystem.
The focus of the project is to integrate artificial intelligence, especially the Alexa voice assistant, to help users shop, view content and use services more easily without being too dependent on traditional applications.
The difference of "Transformer" lies in its deep personalization capability when the device can take advantage of data from shopping history, entertainment habits and user behavior to give appropriate suggestions in real time.
The project is still in the development phase and could be cancelled if the strategy changes or the cost is inappropriate. Amazon has also not announced the selling price, revenue plan or telecommunications partner.
In the context of the smartphone market being saturated and expected to decline sharply in 2026, competing with giants like Apple and Samsung is a significant challenge. These two companies currently account for about 40% of the global market share.
In addition, users are familiar with the existing application ecosystem, making it difficult to persuade them to switch to a new platform.
Amazon is not the only name pursuing new generation AI devices. Many technology companies are testing alternative products to traditional smartphones, from wearable devices to minimalist phones.
However, some recent products such as Humane AI Pin or Rabbit R1 have received poor feedback, showing that this market still has many risks.
However, Amazon still has an advantage thanks to its vast service ecosystem, from e-commerce, digital content to cloud computing. This could be a platform to help the company seek opportunities, although the door to success is considered quite narrow.
The "Transformer" project is led by the ZeroOne group, with the goal of creating breakthrough devices. Besides traditional smartphones, Amazon is also testing a minimalist phone version, similar to Light Phone, to reduce screen dependence and aim for the role of a sub-device.
After past failures, Amazon's return is not just a story about a phone, but also a test for the ambition to make artificial intelligence a user experience center in the future.
