After much rumour and hearsay Amazon unveils its first attempt at smartphones-- the Fire Phone, a 4.7-inch number featuring a glasses-free 3D display of sorts… and a means of encouraging customer showrooming.
The holographic display uses 4 face-tracking cameras (one in each corner of the device) and a "Dynamic Perspective" sensor to provide images with depth. The system also powers some interesting UI tricks, as one can simply tilt the device to scroll through websites or navigate between menus.
However the Fire Phone's most touted feature is not actually hardware-based. With the press of a dedicated button customers can use the smartphone's 13MP camera to identify text, barcodes and QR codes, as well as movies, TV shows, songs, and a bevy of products of the household, books and games variety.
Amazon calls it "Firefly", it's the online retailer's way of encouraging showrooming behaviour-- post-recognition users can push items straight to their Amazon wishlists, shopping carts and media streaming services, all of which are (obviously) integrated in the phone.
Moving on to hardware the Fire Phone carries a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, Adreno 330 graphics, 2GB RAM, 32/64GB of storage and 2400mAh battery. The OS of choice is Fire OS (aka Amazon-modified Android), and Amazon even includes a free on-year subscription to the Prime 2-day delivery and media streaming service in the bundle.
Also included is a "tangle-free premium headset" accessory featuring a custom-vented design and 13.98mm dynamic drivers.
The Fire Phone will be available from July 2014 in the US. Will it manage to put the mobile industry on, well, fire we wonder?