Amazon considers its own Ai smartphone with Alexa at the centre
According to Reuters, the company is also exploring the possibility of a minimalist phone that would reduce screen dependency
Amazon is reportedly working on its own smartphone, to be launched on the market ten years after the flop of the Fire Phone. Much has changed in the meantime. For the worse, probably, because the phone market is struggling to find the growth rhythm of the past. Moreover, as was evident at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the price unknown looms over the industry, because the rising cost of components will be passed on either in margins or in the final cost to the consumer.
In this context, writes Reuters, exclusively, that Amazon would be thinking of a product decidedly focused on artificial intelligence, with integrated Alexa, and pushed personalisation. The aim is to turn the phone into an always-on assistant, capable of accompanying the user throughout the day and integrating with the Amazon ecosystem: purchases, Prime content and on-demand services.
The timing is strategic: Amazon is preparing to bring Alexa+, its generative version of the voice assistant, also to Europe. At the heart of the project is the native integration of AI, which could reduce the role of traditional app stores. Alexa would be central to the experience, though not necessarily the operating system.
AI-first devices
Amazon is not alone in wanting to rethink the smartphone in the AI era. OpenAI is working with Jony Ive, former head of design at Apple, on a new family of AI-first devices, designed to reduce or eliminate the screen and shift interaction to voice and context. The first presentation is expected in 2026, with launch no earlier than 2027. Not just smartphones then, indeed, it could be voice assistants and various wearables.
A project led by former Microsoft
The project is led by the in-house ZeroOne team, writes Reuters, with a mandate to develop 'breakthrough' devices. It is headed by J Allard, a former Microsoft man (he worked on Zune and co-founded the Xbox group). Allard answers to Panos Panay, head of the devices and services division who arrived from Microsoft in 2023: it was Panay who brought him to Amazon in an attempt to revive a historically unprofitable area.
