Hear me out: Amazon's 2nd phone needn't go down in flames like its first.
As successful as Amazon has been in integrating Alexa into our homes and into the public consciousness, the company hasn't really cracked the code on how to get its smart voice assistant out of the house and into the real world. For the sake of comparison, I'd wager that the vast majority of Google Assistant activations are on phones (and not on smart speakers), and I don't think I've ever used Siri on a Mac or Homepod. But outside my home, I can't really use my favorite virtual assistant. That's a real shame for me, but it's a disaster for Amazon.
So what is Amazon to do? Their first attempt at a smartphone, the Amazon Fire Phone, was a flop of magnificent proportions, and their other timid steps towards a mobile version of Alexa have not made much of a dent (see Echo Buds, Echo Auto, and the like). I'm here to argue that if Amazon wants to stay competitive in the smart assistant and AI spaces, it has to build another phone to showcase Alexa.
