If Amazon Launches a Phone, It Will Have a Serious App Problem

At this point, it's all but guaranteed that Amazon will be introducing its own smartphone at a big Willy Wonka-esque event on Wednesday. While we're busy ruminating over the specs, the design and the standout features, I'm left with a larger question: Can Amazon build a phone with the essential services it needs to compete?

After all, a smartphone is more than just a screen, RAM and a 4G LTE chipset. As we've seen time and time again, with everything from the Palm Pre (RIP WebOS), BlackBerry 10 and even Windows Phone, the services and ecosystem that a phone has are just as important as specs.

That's why when the rumors of an Amazon phone (and a 3D one at that) started to spread, I mentally dismissed them. It's not that a phone isn't the next natural extension for Amazon, it's that I was unsure how the company could build a phone with all the essentials customers need. And without Google.
Core app stumbling blocks

Amazon isn't entering the smartphone space blind. The company has spent nearly three years building and selling its Kindle Fire tablets. And that strategy has found great success. But can that success translate into a phone, where the core requirements are quite different?

Amazon's Fire OS is an interesting product in that it's a true Google-free version of Android. Nearly every pixel has been redrawn and all dependency on the big G's services have been removed.

On a tablet, this situation works quite well. In North America at least, Amazon has an equal (if not better) content ecosystem of books, movies, music and TV shows. And Amazon has built up its own Appstore to have plenty of games and media apps.

But the core apps for a phone and a tablet are very different things. When it comes to a smartphone, there are a few core apps that every platform must have:

Good email app

Great web browser

Maps

Camera and photo software

Ideally, the built-in options for these options are sufficient — but if they aren't, the platform better have third-party alternatives that can fill in the gaps (we're looking at you, Apple Maps).

The potential problem for Amazon — and a roadblock its new phone will have to address out of the gate — is that right now, Fire OS doesn't have adequate solutions for any of those core apps except for photos. (Amazon's Cloud Drive Photo app for Android does offer a seamless way to back up photos to Amazon's cloud.)
Doing email, maps and a browser

So what do a web browser, maps and email have in common? All three are services where Google is best in class.

Especially on Android, Google has nailed the maps, browser and email experience better than anyone else. Compare the Gmail app to Android's stock mail app, and Google Chrome to the stock Android browser. The experiences are like night and day (even though the stock Android apps are also made by Google).

Google, smartly, uses the importance of its Google-branded apps as a kind of unspoken leverage to prevent manufacturers from forking Android. Doing your own version of Android (as Amazon has with Fire OS) — without Google approval — means that you give up Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, Hangouts, Google Voice, Google Drive and every other major Google service.

In countries where Google has little to no presence — like China — giving up these services might not be a big deal. That's one of the things Nokia is betting on with its Android phone. In the United States, however, making a phone that doesn't have native Google support is risky.

With Windows Phone, Microsoft at least has a solid first-party base of replacements. Internet Explorer, Nokia Maps and Outlook are all powerful, competent offerings.

Microsoft might not have the market share, but it does prove that a Google-free ecosystem can be built. So what about Amazon?

Amazon purists may argue that the Kindle Fire and Fire OS have built-in email and a built-in web browser. This is true. But built-in ≠ adequate. Just ask BlackBerry.

The email app included with the Kindle Fire and Fire OS is rudimentary. It works, but it's hardly the sort of app you'd want to spend a lot of time in — especially on a phone.

This is even more true for Amazon's Silk web browser. Silk's big claim to fame was supposed to be its ultra-fast speed, helped by Amazon's AWS backend. If only that worked in practice. If you've ever used Silk, you know that it hasn't lived up to its premise of more speed. Moreover, the interface is clunky.

On a tablet, the subpar email and lackluster browser are no big deal — you spend most of your time in apps or watching content anyway. On a smartphone, however, email and the web browser are vital to the entire experience.

This is even more true for maps. As Apple's initial rollout of Apple Maps proved, maps are one of the most crucial aspects of a smartphone. Mess up maps, and customers will revolt.
Going without Google

Short of some surprise (and very unorthodox) deal with Google, we have to assume that Google's core apps — Gmail, Maps, Chrome — won't ever find their way to Amazon's smartphone. Some of those apps might be available via subterfuge, but the reliance on Google services will likely relegate access to the individuals willing to tinker and hack their phones.

So what can Amazon do in response? It's possible that Amazon has spent the last few years building out a robust core-apps team of developers and that it can launch competent replacements itself — à la Windows Phone.

It should be noted, however, that Microsoft's Outlook and Internet Explorer platforms go back two decades, which made that kind of transition with Windows Phone 8 less of an internal struggle. Again, to cite Apple Maps: Buying a bunch of companies and hoping that the fruits can be slapped together to take on incumbents with years of data is short-sighted and naive. Microsoft also benefited from Nokia's longstanding mapping relationship.

Instead, I think it would be more tenable — and probably more successful — for Amazon to adopt solid third-party offerings as the defaults for its platform. Maybe license Nokia Maps from Microsoft, for instance. For email, look at Mailbox or one of the other new email startups. The web browser is more difficult, but a customized version of something like Dolphin browser, Opera or even Firefox for Android could work, too.
Don't expect the defaults to be 'good enough'

My only fear with an Amazon smartphone is that no matter how great the exclusive Amazon features are, how exciting the tech might be, how solid the user experience — the core default apps will still suffer.

That cannot happen. If Amazon can't built first-rate default apps or partner with third parties to include those apps as defaults, the Amazon Appstore better make finding replacements easy and seamless.

Amazon's target customer is not the user who wants to read a bunch of reviews hunting for a way to get a mapping app that works correctly — or an email app that doesn't suck. This customer wants stuff to work seamlessly. That has always been Amazon's calling card. Deviating from that method, especially for core apps, could be disastrous.

We should all heed the lessons of Facebook Home and the dozen other failed attempts to reinvent the smartphone wheel — if you make things too different and obfuscate or de-emphasize core features too much, customers will respond by not buying a phone.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure how Amazon is going to address the core apps problem — but I'm confident the company has a plan. Let's just hope it can execute.

Posted by : Gizmeon