Amazon’s Panos Panay addresses new Fire phone rumors
Amazon’s head of devices and services, Panos Panay, said the company was “not necessarily” planning to launch a smartphone, but stopped short of outright denying it. It was previously reported that Amazon was developing an Alexa-enabled AI phone named “Transformer”, more than 10 years after discontinuing its ill-fated Fire Phone.
Addressing the Financial TimesPanay was directly asked if the company was planning another smartphone. “That’s just not the point,” he replied. “I know there are a lot of rumors.”
“I think your black and white question is: Are you looking for a phone? A lot of people want me to say no, but a lot of people want me to say yes, I get it. Here’s my take: That’s not necessarily the case. [that] we are looking for a phone, no.
“It’s a delicate question,” he added. “If I say no in black and white, I would say it’s accurate. But I also think it’s misleading.”
Much of Panay’s lengthy answer to the question hinges on changes to the smartphone form factor, which he says is “not going anywhere” but is “going through some transformation and will continue to do so over the next 10 years.” Its covers might suggest that whatever Amazon is working on won’t quite be a phone as we know it. Little is known about the Transformer project, other than that the team has explored both smartphone and “dumb phone” design and that Amazon’s Alexa Plus AI assistant will be at the heart of the device.
About AI wearables, Panay said that “we’re working on a whole new set of form factors,” so perhaps the company’s phone plans fit into that framework. But it seems that after Amazon’s bad experiences with the Fire Phone and Panay’s release of the Surface Duo at Microsoft, he is in no rush to release a simple smartphone again.
