On At The Nexus #32: Hey There Mitch, I made the pitch for Amazon’s phone. I thought of the differentiation Amazon might use to make themselves standout.
The iPhone brings the best of the hardware and software together, Android brings the best of choice and variety, Windows Phone brings the best of an alternative purely digital interface into the market. Each of these phones brings something unique to the market. Amazon would be hard pressed into bringing a phone into such a crowed market covered with this competition.
Amazon’s going to make a phone, so what can they do differently? Sure, they can design a unique interface but not everyone is obsessed with details. No, instead, I think Amazon might hit a sweet spot that has been a consumer’s dream for so long. I think Amazon could make their own MVNO (potentially on Sprint’s network) and offer a special plan for their Amazon phone. You buy the phone for relatively cheap (about $100) and then you get a relatively cheap service too, for, let’s say, $35 a month or $30 a month with lock-screen ads.
Amazon still has room to disrupt the phone market even though other angles have been covered. You can listen to some more detailed thoughts via the podcast around 36:00.