The buzz lately in the tech web/blog/Twitter-sphere is that Amazon is preparing a smartphone to compete against Apple’s iOS and Android. As Analyst Michael Gatenberg points out, at this point, people are talking about it as though it is a given that they will enter the smartphone race:
no speculation at all in the title. so it’s just a given at this point. flpbd.it/zd57R
— Michael Gartenberg (@Gartenberg) July 6, 2012
In theorizing about why it might make sense for Amazon to get into a crowded smartphone field, some predictably cite the synergy Amazon could offer users in access to their unmatched shopping ecosystem as well as possible hooks into Amazon Prime. But I’d suggest that making it easier for people to spend money on Amazon is not enough for them to differentiate from both iOs and, arguably more importantly, for those consumers that have decided they don’t want an iPhone, its not enough to stand out from some of the very good Android based handsets that are already on the market.
Put another way, people don’t buy handsets because it is more convenient to make purchases from their handset or because they can get some cross platform benefits with the Kindle platform or even because they might be able to stream movies using their Prime account to their phone. A smartphone has become a personal device and Apple has taught modern day consumers that style matters. For many purchasers that more closely describes how they make purchase decisions—the products they believe to be cool, and relevant.
What does this mean for Amazon? It means that there are a lot of very large and successful companies that are vying for attention in the exploding smartphone market. Apple, Motorola, Samsung, etc even Microsoft and now Google itself makes hardware. It’s a crowded space and it has matured such that there are some high quality handsets for consumers to choose from. Amazon should not think that they can throw some vanilla hardware out there, trumpet the tie-ins to their shopping network and consumers will come running.
Instead, they should take the approach that it will take some innovative hardware and design to capture consumer attention. They should focus on innovative hardware design, something cool and unique that will have consumers perking their head up and looking to find out more. Easier said than done, but the case can be made for not entering the fray until they feel they have done so.
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About the Author
Nathan Safran is a former Analyst at Forrester Research where he covered the Digital Home. While at Forrester, Nathan authored research studies on trends, attitudes and behaviors of consumers toward technology adoption and use.
Nathan has been quoted as a subject matter expert in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Fortune magazine. Currently, Nathan heads the Research Department at Conductor, Inc an SEO Technology Platform firm.
Nathan writes at exceljockey.com about the intersection of Business, Technology and Psychology. See the About page for more info. Follow Nathan on Twitter: @Nathan_Safran
