亚马逊Fire手机初体验

    当我第一次使用亚马逊的移动应用时，我大吃了一惊。

    我用这款应用在沃尔玛超市（Wal-Mart）扫描了一个条形码，它不仅正确识别出了我手中的玩具，而且我只要再点击几下，就可以让亚马逊用隔夜快递把它送到我家，而且我还能省８美元。当我看到手机上显示订单已确认的消息后，我马上到超市的另一边找我的妻子。我拿起另一样商品向她展示亚马逊应用的神奇功能，她也感到惊奇不已。从那个时刻开始，我们的购物习惯被永远地改变了。

    亚马逊对人们购物习惯的影响，无论怎么说都不夸张。据ComScore公司统计，在2013年冬天，有史以来销量最高的一个节日购物季里，美国智能手机用户中有73.3%，即1.14亿多人上过亚马逊的移动网站。

    但是根据ComScore公司的同一篇报告显示，亚马逊的专用APP，也就是拥有条形码扫描功能的那个（你在亚马逊网站上还下载不到这个应用），在美国只有22.6%的智能手机用户使用它。虽然这个人数也不少，而且给亚马逊带来了相当的收入。不过根据研究机构ShopperTrak统计，在2013年11-12月，美国人到实体店消费合计1760亿次，这说明像亚马逊这样的电商仍然有很大的赚钱空间，甚至是把全世界变成一个巨大的“样品间”。

    亚马逊的第一款智能手机起了个简单的名字“Fire”（火），它也是亚马逊为打造数字购物天堂推出的最新一款硬件设备。这款手机将于7月25日开始出货。早在六月，亚马逊便将这款手机吹捧得人间少有。它搭载了亚马逊自家的应用和服务， 并且借鉴了谷歌安卓或是Kindle平板电脑的模式，力求吸引人们来到一个由亚马逊主宰的世界。

    在硬件方面，这款手机基本上与竞争对手保持了一致水平。首先它具备一块4.7寸高清屏幕，一台1300万像素摄像头，可以选择32或64GB的存储空间，并且有2G内存。根据不同的存储空间，这款手机的零售价也分为199美元和299美元两个价位，均为两年的AT&T合约价。（当我问亚马逊怎样看待AT&T合约长度的问题时，对方抱以似乎颇感不快的微笑，并表示“不发表评论”。）

    不过，如今的智能手机经常要靠软件来分高下。亚马逊的Fire手机搭载了一个叫做FireOS的操作系统，不过它实质上是谷歌安卓系统的一个“纯净版”。它的自带应用包括亚马逊的即时视频、Kindle电子书、Prime Music市场，值得一提的是每位Fire手机用户都可免费享用一年亚马逊的Prime会员服务。不过光靠一款搭载了亚马逊服务的手机，还不足以把全世界变成一个大“样品间”。这时候就要靠FireFly（意为萤火虫）大显身手了。

    作为这款手机的旗舰功能，FireFly实际上是一项扫描应用，它能分辨出１亿多种不同的商品，从食品、家庭用品甚至到音乐、电影和游戏等媒体产品都不在话下。它识别实物产品靠的是手机的摄像头，识别音乐、电视节目或电影等媒体产品则靠的是手机话筒。

    The first time I used Amazon’s mobile application I was flabbergasted.

    I used the app to scan a bar code at Wal-Mart. Not only did it properly identify the toy in my hand, I was able to order it for overnight delivery with a few more taps. Oh, and I saved $8. With order confirmation in hand, I immediately ran over to my wife, who was a few aisles away. I picked up another product to demonstrate. She shared in my amazement. From that point forward, our approach to shopping was forever changed.

    The impact that Amazon has had on the way people buy things is difficult to overstate. According to ComScore, 73.3 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. accessed Amazon’s mobile websites in December 2013, the height of the winter holiday shopping season. That’s more than 114 million people.

    Here’s the rub: according to the same report, Amazon’s dedicated app—the one with the barcode scanning feature, which isn’t available on the company’s website—was only used by 22.6 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. That’s still a lot of people, and it all results in revenue for Amazon. But people made 17.6 billion trips to U.S. stores in November and December 2013, according to ShopperTrak, suggesting that there is plenty of money still on the table and, for an e-tailer like Amazon, ample opportunity to turn the world into a giant showroom.

    Amazon’s first smartphone, which it calls simply “Fire,” is the company’s latest physical device to help it reach this quasi-digital nirvana. The handset, which will begin shipping on Friday and which the company announced with much fanfare in June, is loaded with Amazon’s own applications and services—taking a page from Google’s Android playbook, or perhaps its own Kindle one—to entice people to embrace a world where Amazon rules.

    On the hardware front, the phone keeps up with its peers. It has a 4.7-inch high-definition display, a 13-megapixel camera, 32 or 64 gigabytes of storage and two gigabytes of memory. It will retail for $199 or $299, based on storage selection, with a two-year AT&T service contract. (When I pressed Amazon regarding the length of the U.S. carrier’s exclusivity, I was met with annoyed smiles and “no comment.”)

    Nonetheless, today’s smartphones are most differentiated by their software, and the Fire’s operating system, a stripped version of Google’s Android dubbed FireOS, comes loaded with access to Amazon’s Instant Video, Kindle books, and Prime Music marketplaces, courtesy of a clever promotion that gives every new Fire owner a free one-year membership to Amazon’s Prime service. Still, a phone packed with Amazon services isn’t enough to turn the world into a show floor. That’s where Firefly comes in.

    The phone’s flagship feature is a scanning application that can identify more than 100 million different products, from food to household items to media such as music, movies and games. It can scan physical items using the phone’s camera and pinpoint more slippery products—think music, television shows, or movies—using the phone’s microphone.