Amazon Fire Phone Firefly App is the latest buzz word in retail; one of the largest online resellers releases a phone with a camera-bound app meant to maximize shopping and purchasing convenience.
Amazon unveiled its entry to the smartphone market yesterday, with a device that's apparently customized for retail purposes. Industry experts immediately took notice of the Fire Phone's features, particularly the Firefly app.
The Amazon Fire Phone was released as complement to Amazon services, or at least most of these. The device offers the basic features of a serviceable smartphone, plus plenty of bells and whistles to boot.
The Amazon Fire Phone core features, by IGN:
Features that ensure the Fire Phone stands out from the competition include a 3D screen, head sensors, a perspective that's optimized and adjusted with the user's orientation, and real-time identification of more than a hundred million objects.
The last feature is identified to the Firefly app, which integrates the Fire Phone's hardware and software with the Amazon cloud service. Initial reviews compare the feature as simple as the iPhone's interface; objects are easily identified by using the Fire Phone's camera and tapping on the Firefly button.
Critics consider the Amazon Fire Phone Firefly App as an invasion of privacy, though. Though separate, the Fire Phone's camera is practically paired with the Firefly app, and pictures taken of objects are sent to the cloud by default.
Amazon maintains personal photographs are sent to users' storage, while inquiries on products and promos, objects available on retail (online or at walk-in shops) are sent to the collective Amazon cloud, with discretion.
The Firefly app can recognize a variety of objects, including images, songs, television shows, phone numbers, printed characters, and QR codes (venturebeat.com).
Amazon's presentation and marketing strategy for the Fire Phone hints it has no intention of going toe-to-toe with Apple and Samsung, instead focusing on its solid retail market. A $199 price point is comparable to the competition's high-end devices, but with perks (Amazon Prime membership exclusives) thrown in for safety measure (nytimes.com).
