Amazon Developing New Smartphone Codenamed Transformer in Bid to Erase Fire Phone Legacy

Amazon is quietly developing a new smartphone more than a decade after its Fire Phone debacle, according to a Reuters exclusive published last Thursday Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. The project, known internally as Transformer, represents one of the most ambitious bets in the company's consumer hardware history — and one of its riskiest. If it reaches the market, it would mark Amazon's return to a category that handed the company one of its most embarrassing product failures.

The device is being built inside a year-old skunkworks group called ZeroOne, which sits within Amazon's devices and services division Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopi-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. ZeroOne is led by J Allard, a former Microsoft executive best known for helping create the Xbox gaming console and the Zune music player. Overseeing the broader effort is Panos Panay, the former Microsoft Surface chief who now runs all of Amazon's hardware operations and has spent the past two years trying to make the division profitable after years of significant losses Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. The combination of Allard and Panay — both veterans of Microsoft's hardware experiments, both familiar with the highs and lows of building consumer electronics at scale — signals that Amazon is treating this project as more than an exploratory exercise.

Four people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Transformer phone is envisioned as a mobile personalization device tightly integrated with Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant that underwent a major AI-driven overhaul before relaunching in 2025 Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopi-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. The phone would make purchasing from Amazon, streaming Prime Video, listening to Prime Music, and ordering food from partners like Grubhub easier than on any competing device. Crucially, the project team has been exploring whether artificial intelligence capabilities could eliminate the need for a traditional app store altogether — a radical departure from the model that dominates today's smartphone market Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. Rather than downloading individual applications, users could potentially interact with services through Alexa's conversational interface, with the AI handling the complexity behind the scenes.

The ambition is not without precedent in the AI hardware space, and the recent track record is sobering. The Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 both attempted to offer generative AI experiences without conventional smartphone interfaces Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopi-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. Both received poor reviews from critics and consumers alike, and the Humane Pin was discontinued entirely. Meanwhile, OpenAI is collaborating with former Apple design chief Jony Ive on hardware prototypes, and Apple, Google, and Meta are all developing AI-embedded glasses and wearables Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. The difference, proponents of Amazon's approach might argue, is that the company already has the commerce and content ecosystem that those failed startups lacked — a built-in reason for users to engage with the device beyond novelty.

Amazon's previous foray into smartphones ended in a spectacular and costly failure that still haunts the company's hardware reputation. The Fire Phone launched in mid-2014 at a price of 649 dollars unlocked, featuring a proprietary Fire OS that lacked popular apps available in Android and iOS stores Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopi-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. Its headline feature — a multi-camera system for displaying 3D images — consumed so much battery that the device frequently overheated. The phone also included a camera-based shopping tool called Firefly that could recognize products and add them to Amazon shopping carts, but the overall package failed to convince consumers. Amazon slashed the price to 159 dollars within months and canceled the product after just 14 months on the market, taking a 170 million dollar write-down on unsold inventory Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. The episode became a cautionary tale in Silicon Valley about the perils of hardware ambition untethered from genuine user demand.

The timing of a second attempt raises questions that even Amazon's supporters find difficult to answer. Global smartphone shipments are headed for their steepest decline on record in 2026, with IDC projecting a 13 percent drop as surging memory chip prices drive up device costs and consumers hold onto existing handsets longer Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopi-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. Apple and Samsung together command roughly 40 percent of worldwide sales, according to Counterpoint Research, and their grip on the premium segment is even tighter. Breaking into that duopoly has proven nearly impossible for even well-resourced competitors — ask Google, whose Pixel phones remain a niche player despite years of investment, or Huawei, which lost access to Google services and watched its international market share collapse.

Industry analysts are divided on whether Amazon can succeed where it failed before. Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of data and analytics at IDC, wrote in a research note last week that Amazon brings together a powerful services ecosystem spanning commerce, content, cloud computing, and an existing AI foundation with Alexa Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. But he cautioned that the window of opportunity is shrinking rapidly, noting that every major technology company is moving in the same direction. Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird, acknowledged that a prior failure does not make a second attempt insurmountable but warned that Amazon will need to give consumers a compelling reason to abandon existing app stores to which they are deeply attached Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopi-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. The skeptics point out that ecosystem lock-in cuts both ways — users invested in Apple's iMessage, iCloud, and App Store or Google's Android ecosystem face significant switching costs.

One of the more intriguing details to emerge from the reporting is that Amazon has explored a minimalist dumbphone concept alongside the traditional smartphone design Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. The Light Phone, a 700-dollar device with a camera, map, calendar, and little else — no app store, no web browser — has served as one source of inspiration. A stripped-down device could position Amazon's phone as a second handset rather than a direct competitor to iPhones and Samsung Galaxies already in consumers' pockets. Feature phones and minimalist handsets accounted for 15 percent of global handset sales last year, according to Counterpoint Research Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopi-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. The dumbphone angle also taps into a growing cultural backlash against smartphone addiction, particularly among parents looking for devices to give teenagers with limited access to social media.

Reuters could not determine several critical details, including the anticipated price, the revenue Amazon expects to generate, or the total financial commitment to the project Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. Three people who have worked on Transformer said the phone remains under active development, and Amazon has not yet sought wireless carrier partners — a step that would typically come later in the development cycle. The company explored both the traditional smartphone and the dumbphone concept simultaneously, and the project could still be scrapped if Amazon's strategy shifts or financial concerns arise Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopi-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. Amazon's shares fell 1.6 percent on the day the report was published and are down 9.3 percent for the year. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment for the Reuters story.

For Amazon, the Transformer project reflects a broader corporate conviction that artificial intelligence and voice computing will define the next era of consumer technology. The company has staked much of its consumer-facing future on Alexa, and a dedicated mobile device would give it the kind of persistent, always-on connection to users that currently belongs almost exclusively to Apple and Google Exclusive-Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than a decade after Fire Phone flopchannelnewsasia.com·SecondarySAN FRANCISCO, March 20 : In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone - overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos - was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. The latest effort, known internally as “Transformer,” is being developed within its devices and services unit, according to four people familiar with the matter.. Whether that conviction translates into a product people actually want to carry in their pockets — and whether Amazon has learned the right lessons from a failure that cost it hundreds of millions of dollars — is the question the company must now answer for the second time.