Live from Amazon’s phone announcement in Seattle!
Look, Amazon didn’t exactly hide the fact that today’s mystery product announcement would be its long-rumored 3D phone. But with the exception of the occasional picture, the company did a decent job of keeping its new handheld device out of the public eye. Now Amazon’s ready to show off the new Kindle Fire phone (or whatever it ends up being called), and we’re here to bring you the news as it happens. Enjoy!
Hey everyone! We’re seated at the event, which is taking place in the Fremont Studios north of Seattle.
Zach Honig’s got us covered on the photos today. Send praise and hate mail to @zachhonig.
The venue seats around 200-300 people, so it’s a pretty small affair, compared to most other major product announcements. Attendees consist of press, developers and “Amazon customers.”
Obviously we’re expecting a phone today. Rumors have mentioned six cameras, 720p resolution, 4.7-inch display, 2GB RAM. We’ll see if those rumors hold up. Sounds like it could be a very mid-range phone, with the exception of 3D. Will it be another gimmick exclusive to AT&T like the HTC First? Hard to say right now, but it sure seems like it’s possible.
Zach’s taking pictures of me. I’m a little nervous.
The event is supposed to start right now, but we haven’t heard any voiceovers telling us to settle down yet.
Sadly, there’s no livestream of today’s announcement.
The music in here is pretty peppy and electronic. It’s hard to be unhappy or unexcited with music like this.
(Photog’s note: Sorry folks, there’s not much else to shoot right now. Hopefully getting started in a moment or two!)
Lights are dimming. Looks like we’re starting! Video time.
A submitted video of Jason from Issaquah who wanted to come to the event, and why. Jason just yelled “That’s me!” in the audience.
Looks like he got in…
Another customer video submission, showing off his interest in the Fire TV (and the Apple TV, which is no longer being used.)
Now we’re seeing a video of the biggest Kindle fan there is. Who knew that he would be here!
Jeff Bezos is on stage now. “We had 60,000 people apply for an invitation; 300 of you are here.”
Big applause for those who applied and got in.
Jeff’s starting with context before the announcement. Talking about Prime memberships. “We quickly had millions of members. But then something extraordinary happened.”
All of a sudden there was a huge spike in membership starting in 2011. Why? Prime Instant Video, Kindle Lending library and the Kindle Fire.
“What’s the real story? Patience, persistence and attention to the smallest of details.”
“You can fill a bucket with an eye dropper if the bucket doesn’t leak. You can fill a bucket with a fire hose, but if the bucket leaks, it’s still going to be empty tomorrow.” Deep stuff.
“Well, Prime isn’t leaking. People use the service; they use it a lot; they love it; and they renew it.”
“We’re not trying to build service for tens of millions of customers… we’re trying to build it for ONE customer.”
Jeff’s showing off tweets from users about how much they love Prime.
“The only decent life choice I’ve ever made is Amazon Prime,” says one tweet.
Now we’re on to hardware.
Same thing: obsessing over the smallest of details. “We’ve been in the device business for 10 years since we built the first Kindle.”
There was a lot of skepticism when the Kindle first came out.
Time to boast over glamorous Kindle reviews. TechCrunch, NYT, ZDnet. Still wondering if Engadget will get a shout-out.
Kindle Fire HDX and Fire TV are the latest devices.
Hooray! Engadget got a shout-out for our Fire TV review. You should read it.
“Reputation is a trailing indicator of excellence… as it should be,” Jeff says.
“I think the most important thing we’ve done over the last 20 years is earn trust with customers. We’ve worked hard to do that.”
Jeff says you don’t earn trust by asking for it.
To earn trust, you must do hard things well, and repeat.
So is the phone the next repeat?
More boasting: Amazon is #1 in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, as well as the ForeSee US Retail Experience Index.
YouGov? #1. (Kindle is #10.)
Harris Poll? Yep. You guessed it.
“One of the hard things customers have come to expect from Amazon is that we invent.”
Now he’s talking about the book he sent to the attendees. It’s his favorite children’s book. His mom, who is in attendance, read it to him hundreds of times.
“We do things differently as well.”
He always gets asked if Amazon is going to build a phone, or when the phone is coming out.
Jeff, now you’re just being a tease.
Talking about the Prime ecosystem and millions of engaged customers. “It makes sense to me that it would be a natural question. But we internally asked a different question: ‘How would it be different? Can we build a better phone for our most engaged customers?’”
Pulling something out of his pocket…
And there it is!
It’s the Fire Phone!
“This phone is gorgeous. We put a huge amount of effort into the industrial design.”
Rubberized frame, Gorilla Glass on both sides, CNC aluminum buttons. polished button chamfers. injection-molded steel connectors for a tight and precise fit.
It’s got a 4.7-inch HD display, “optimized for one-handed use.”
More on the display: 590 nits brightness. dynamic image contrast and circular polarizer.
It comes with a quad-core 2.2GHz processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB RAM.
“Our phones are also our primary cameras.” 13MP rear-facing with f/2.0 lens and OIS. Nice!
Now Jeff’s showing some sample photos, as well as comparisons with the GS5 and iPhone 5s.
The Fire sample definitely looks like it has better low-light performance. (Naturally we’ll have to wait until we get our hands on it to try it out, but it’s impressive so far.)
There’s also a camera hardware key!
That’s not something you see every day anymore.
Also: free unlimited photo storage.
sound is important, too. Dual stereo speakers are in there, with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Google, Amazon
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