Amazon's 3D Smartphone As a (Useful) Gimmick 68
Steve Patterson (2850575) writes It's rumored that Amazon will launch its own 3D smartphone on June 18. While it may be compelling, a sexy 3D feature won't catapult Amazon into the lead of the cut-throat smartphone category. If this were true, the EVO 3D, introduced two years ago by HTC and the W960, introduced by Samsung four years ago, would have been top sellers rather than niche products. However, a smartphone that renders 3D images does present an internet retailing opportunity for Amazon. It would be useful to Amazon in selling tangible consumer merchandise, just like Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet was designed to improve Amazon's merchandising of ebooks and video streaming products. What else would you like to use a 3D phone for?
Might be good internationally (Score:2)
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Fuck your emails, I want free VoIP all over the planet via Amazon, with the ability to call landline and cell phones too.
I'm pretty sure Amazon could offer extremely low-cost monthly/yearly plans, such as 5$ per month for unlimited minutes.
That could push Amazon so far ahead of the competition that iOS and Android could soon be history.
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And by "fuck your emails" I meant that you should think big. If they can offer low-cost VoIP I'm sure that low-bandwidth data would also be included, so emails and Web browsing would be part of the deal. But not video.
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Why should we assume low-bandwidth data would be included automatically? Look at text messaging.
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We're talking about Amazon vs Rape-you-from-behind cellphone companies.
Amazon wants to sell you things via their own hardware. Look at the Kindle.
Re:Might matter to some of you. (Score:2)
If Amazon wanted to sell me things, they would not have chosen to engage in sub-ethical business practices. [amazon.com]
They are simply going to have to get by without my custom.
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No I haven't, because I'm not an author.
As for 5$ per month for unlimited phone calls, keep in mind that HE-AAC only requires 24kbit/s for mono and HE-AAC v2 only requires 12kbits/s for mono [fraunhofer.de], so it's a lot less bandwidth for one minute of conversation than you think. With HE-AAC v2, one minute of talk is only 90 Kilobytes.
use for 3D phone (Score:3, Funny)
primarily, it will be used for 3D sexting.
secondly, it will be used for watching tiny movies.
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When I was working in the cellular industry a decade or so ago and video calling over GSM was just coming out I thought it would take off with pay-per-minute phone sex lines.
Probably didn't take off because they'd need to hire attractive people to run the phone sex lines.
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You use your phone to make calls? When were you born grampa, the 20th century?
That does it. I'm slamming down the receiver on you.
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Making 3D video phone calls?
Territorial pissing matches (Score:1)
You know what it won't be used for? Reading Hachette books or ordering Warner Bros DVDs and BluRays.
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BURN! - Kelso
Re:Porn (Score:4, Funny)
Fuck your porn.
Oh, wait.
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Been wanting one for a long time. (Score:5, Funny)
I keep cutting my fingers on my 2D smartphone. And it sucks when I lay it down on a flat surface.
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Already (Score:5, Funny)
An unspecified feature for an unannounced product, but we already know exactly what's wrong with it and why it will fail.
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The Amazon E-Reader worked because no other serious electronics company made a decent device - my first E-Reader was a Sony PRS, back in 2005, it sucked, but it sucked less. And E-Readers are for only reading. Still, even if Microsoft took that market seriously - for that you needed someone who is capable of throwing more than chair at the helm - Amazon would have found their Kindle a hard
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The Kindle sold well because Amazon sold it cheap and most importantly - it's the best and easiest way to buy and read cheap books. Sure you could read ebooks on your phone, but your battery will go flat and your eyes will get sore.
If they offer a compelling service with this new phone, it will succeed.
If it's just for 3D movies, it'll flop like 3D TV's.
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"True, but Amazon is getting into an area where it has no core-competency."
I repeat: *unannounced product*. We don't even know that they are getting into the area let alone that they are incompetent at it.
"a great phone - at least a Xiaomi "
A who? Whatever it is it has already failed because no one knows about it.
Also:
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.
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"a great phone - at least a Xiaomi "
A who? Whatever it is it has already failed because no one knows about it.
Just because you haven't heard of it does not mean that billions of people haven't heard of it. Measuring success or failure based on what's successful in your immediate circle is a pretty narrow definition of success.
What else would you like to use a 3D phone for? (Score:2)
p0rn, duh
It has not even been announced? (Score:3)
Because Slashdot has such a great history of predicting product success. [slashdot.org]
My phone is already 3D (Score:3)
Hell if you want to impress me, make a 2D phone. That'd be pretty cool unless you drop it on it's side and chop off your foot.
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Finally, someone who knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
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Duh. You use a 2D battery!
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Two D batteries [wikipedia.org] are going to be huge.
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*laughs* ok, you win THIS time! (;
Been there. Done that. (Score:5, Interesting)
My old phone is an LG Thrill. Geat phone when it was released. Had a 3D camera so you could take 3D pictures. Reasonable 3D rendering ON THE PHONE. That's the problem. You could take 3D pictures but only people with another LG Thrill could view them in 3D. You couldn't even share just one of the two images from the stereoscopic image since neither image was actually "correct" when viewed alone. You had to view the 3D images on an LG Thrill. Dumb.
Oh yeah. It also had the ability to play 3D games. I don't play games so that was another useless feature. Also, I'm sorry but the idea behind 3D movies, games, what have you is to make the experience "immersive". It's really hard to feel immersed when you have this little teeny, tiny smartphone screen. Lifesized 3D on a wall sized 4K screen is immersive.
Cheers,
Dave
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Your comments were negative and depressing, not cheerful.
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The 3DS has the same problem, it can take 3D photos, but you can only see them on the 3DS. I have used that feature on my 3DS exactly 4 times (mostly just to show to other people it is there.)
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3D movies are a fad but 3D photographs can be quite spectacular. Unfortunately, viewing is an issue requiring either a special viewing device or expensive printing. It's a shame but it is what it is.
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When I view the stereoscope images off camera, they "don't match" with regard to color. Just a slightly different hue but very noticeable. A 2D shot of the same scene matches neither of the stereoscope pair and matches the "real" colors.
Stereoscpic photography has been around for a long time. It just takes shooting the same scene twice but from two slightly different points. My family at one time had a 35mm film camera that had two lenses,etc and could be used to take stereoscopic photograph pairs. You
How does it even work? (Score:2)
Will I have to wear red/green or polarizing glasses to recognize anything on my phone? Will I have to carry spare cardboard glasses if I want to show a girl at the bar my latest photos?
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Or, at least, that is what you can tell the girl at the bar.
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It's a small screen so it'll probably work with a paralax barrier screen [wikipedia.org].
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I bought a 3D camera based on some pictures taken with my daughter's 3DS. I had also played with creating some 3D pictures with a "snap, two paces right, snap" method. There's definitely something that the added depth brings to some scenes (some more than others) that isn't present in a regular picture. It requires a little thought about the composition though so may not be so useful on a phone mostly used for instagram pictures.
If you have a way to view 3D at all, hop over to Phereo.com. I think some of my
Maps (Score:2)
Poor logic (Score:2)
While it may be compelling, a sexy 3D feature won't catapult Amazon into the lead of the cut-throat smartphone category. If this were true, the EVO 3D, introduced two years ago by HTC and the W960, introduced by Samsung four years ago, would have been top sellers rather than niche products.
If that was a logical conclusion from the lacklustre sales four years ago, then nothing new would ever get off the ground.
Handy for holding it (Score:2)
A 3D phone is much easier to hold than a 2D phone.
I would use it... (Score:1)