Amazon’s Panos Panay responds to new Fire phone rumors

Amazon’s head of hardware and services, Panos Panay, says the company is “not” planning to release a smartphone, but has stopped denying it. It was previously reported that Amazon is building an army An Alexa-powered AI phone called “Transformer,” 10 years have passed since it lost its infamous fire phone.

Talking with Financial TimesPanay was asked directly if the company is planning a smartphone. “It’s not a goal,” he replied. “I know there are a lot of rumors out there.”

“I think your black and white question is, do you follow the phone?

“It’s a difficult question,” he added. “If I say no, if I say no, then that is true, but I think it is false.”

Panay’s long answer to this question is based on the changing nature of the mobile phone, which he says is “not going anywhere,” but “is changing, and will continue to do so for the next 10 years.” His hedgers would say that whatever Amazon is working on won’t be a phone as we know it. Little is known about the reported Transformer project, except that the team researched both a smartphone and a “dumbphone”, and that the Amazon Alexa Plus AI assistant will be at the center of the device.

When discussing AI wearables, Panay said “there’s a new feature we’re working on,” so perhaps the company’s phone plans fall under that. But it sounds like later Amazon’s bad experience with the Fire Phoneit’s Panay that’s releasing it Surface Duo at Microsoft, they are in no rush to release a standalone phone.