Mar 21, 2026
3 min read
The company is developing a new artificial intelligence mobile device.If Amazon follows through on the plan, experts warn that it may not be possible to break into the crowded market.
More than a decade after abandoning the lackluster Fire Phone, Amazon is giving the smartphone another try.Amazon's hardware and services division is working on a smartphone, dubbed the Transformer, with Amazon's Alexa+ AI assistant, and shopping as a major focus, Reuters reported.
Details are thin.It is unclear how much this smartphone will cost, how much Amazon is spending to develop the Transformer and what operating system it will run on.There's no word on when it will launch, and there's still a possibility that the project could be scrapped altogether.When contacted, an Amazon representative said the company does not comment on rumors and speculation.
Amazon launched the Fire Phone in 2014, but it was discontinued shortly after due to a limited app ecosystem and poor sales.Along with a nifty 3D display, it had an app called Firefly that let you buy things (on Amazon.com, of course) by pointing the camera at an object.
The company is rumored to launch a Fire tablet this year that will, for the first time, run Google's Android operating system instead of Amazon's homegrown Fire OS, which notably lacks native access to the popular Google Play Store. The move suggests that the new smartphone could run Android;However, a Reuters report suggests that the Switch may have an AI interface that could "remove the need for a traditional app store."
This is not the first time there is a discussion of a new type of operating system or user interface product.At Mobile World Congress 2024, T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, showed off a concept phone that creates interactions when users speak, rather than relying on existing apps. CEO Carl Pei said last year that future smartphones will have only one app, "which will be the OS."
AI companies are improving the agent skills of their chatbots – they can complete tasks on your behalf – bringing us one step closer to this reality.Google recently launched task automation in its Gemini Assistant on Samsung and Pixel phones, allowing users to ask the bot to order Uber or food from apps like DoorDash.OpenAI is a new AI-powered assistant designed to become smarter and more powerful collaborators than our smartphones.The devices are believed to be working with ex-Apple designer Jony Ive, but details about what these gadgets might look like are scarce.
Reuters says Amazon's Transformer phone was modeled after the Brooklyn-based company's feature phone, a feature phone with some smart features designed to help people escape the daily distractions of smartphones.While Amazon's device isn't focused on digital detox, considering the Transformer as a secondary device, it could find more traction in the US smartphone market dominated by Samsung and Apple.
"What can they bring to the end user that Apple or Samsung can't? That's the reason I'm having trouble understanding the rationale behind this project," said Francisco Geronimo, vice president of data and analysis at research group IDC."If 10 years ago it was clear that the phone was pointless and unworkable, today it is even worse."
Jeronimo noted that while Amazon may have started work on the Transformer about a year ago, the current economic environment will make the device much more expensive than originally thought due to a lack of memory, supply chain issues caused by the Iran war and tariffs.
Meanwhile, almost every major smartphone manufacturer has its own AI capabilities similar to what Amazon can offer (let alone other companies that won't shove Amazon services and shopping down your throat).
"If it's a phone, it doesn't work when it arrives," Geronimo said."From a hardware point of view, it will be absolutely impossible to compete with Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi. From a software point of view, they may have a chance, but that chance is very short-lived because Apple, Samsung and Android generally move very fast."
If Alexa+ is the driving force behind the Transformer, Jeronimo thinks the device could be a vehicle for AI chatbot exploration in a companion device that's always on your person.Alexa mostly lives on stationary devices in the home;now, while you can install Alexa+ on your smartphone, Amazon doesn't have much control over the experience.You can't make it the default assistant on iPhones, for example.
A wearable or phone-like device would give Amazon this power, as well as greater control over your data.Amazon recently purchased Bee AI, a wearable device that always listens and summarizes your conversations throughout the day, and even creates to-do lists without you asking.When asked if Bee's technology would be integrated with Alexa, Bee co-founder María de Lourdes Zollo, who now works at Amazon, said at CES 2026 that "something is in the works" but couldn't say more
Amazon's new hardware will have to compete with the company's history of user privacy.It ranked second to last for privacy in the 2025 Digital Rights Index.The investigation found that Amazon failed to protect customer data;his Ring cameras created a suburban surveillance state;and a 2022 report found that Alexa used it for targeted advertising.Voice transcriptions were found to have been used.
Alexander Gamero Garrido, an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis who specializes in online privacy, contributed to the 2022 report. He said more recent research has shown that data points such as age and gender can be determined through voice interaction with Alexa devices, which are then used to tailor ads.
"This is not a utility company that takes privacy very seriously," says Gamero-Gerrido.Because people use more smartphones than Alexa or Kindle, he says today's Amazon smartphones "will raise the bar for potential privacy risks."
Gamero-Garrido believes Amazon could use Transformer as a data collection tool to see how people use its devices, build its advertising network and compete with companies like Alphabet and Meta, which are under regulatory scrutiny in the European Union and California.
Another way to do this is the Fire TV method.This is an Amazon TV advertising platform integrated into third-party TVs (or through a dongle);you may not have bought a Fire TV-powered TV from Amazon, but the company owns the data collected from the operating system.
“Whether they succeed with this phone supplement, or whether they end up using a similar model where they install the operating system on another phone or on a 'light' phone made by a third party, the impact will be the same,” he said.“What Amazon ended up doing was centralizing all network traffic through its own infrastructure so it could scale its advertising business.”
If Amazon can tell when someone is sick by the sound of their voice, it can recommend that you buy a special cold medicine from Amazon Health—it's an actual patent owned by Amazon.Now, if it's built into a device you carry everywhere, Gamero-Garrido said, it can listen to more of your conversations and serve you better ads.
Despite the throwback, customers generally embrace Amazon's hardware, said Kassem Fawaz, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies security and privacy in consumer devices.
"I think when it comes to products, consumers unfortunately value convenience and price over privacy," Fawaz wrote in an email to WIRED.
The accelerator here could be Panos Panay, head of Amazon Devices and Services, who joined the company in 2023. Panay, with his amplified and emotionally charged voice, was instrumental in turning Microsoft's Surface line into a purposeful hardware brand.
Panay has already brought this kind of power to a few Amazon hardware announcements, such as the Kindle Scribe ColorSoft, though they haven't matched the success of the Surface.If Amazon really does make a mobile phone, it should make an impression to attract customers.
"If anyone can do it, it's Panos," said Jeronimo."I have full confidence in that. He is the right person for these types of events."
