Amazon Fire smartphone now available in Europe with O2 tie-up in the UK
Amazon Fire phone, the internet retailer’s first smartphone, will go on sale in the UK on 30 September after launching in the US in June.
Amazon has partnered with O2 to offer the phone exclusively on the network. It will also launch in Germany exclusively on Deutsche Telekom network.
The handset is available to pre-order from today and will be free on a £33 a month tariff, or at varying price points on cheaper tariffs.
A standalone price has not been revealed, however the cheapest tariff of £13 a month places the cost of the handset at £399 for the 32GB version or £480 for the 64GB device.
The Fire phone features Firefly, a service designed to identify products within a second and link through to purchase on Amazon’s website. Buyers will also receive a year’s free subscription to its membership service Amazon Prime which includes access to video and music streaming and unlimited cloud storage.
Amazon’s focus on such service features have largely been seen as a way of driving users towards using Amazon’s more well-known shopping services and growing the Amazon ecosystem.
The device also features “Dynamic Perspective” a new technology designed by Amazon which uses multiple cameras to offer users a 3D-like immersive experience on screens.
The Fire phone is Amazon’s attempt to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung in the smartphone market and adds to its line up of other devices such as the Kindle e-reader and the Kindle fire tablet.
Amazon has yet to reveal sales figures for the phone in the US where it went on sale towards the end of June on the AT&T network.