Amazon Will Start Subsidizing Android Phones With ‘Special Offer’ Ads on the Lock Screens

Lauren Goode, writing for The Verge:

Amazon today said it would begin offering Prime members significant discounts on select unlocked Android smartphones, in exchange for the ability to pre-install Amazon apps and show customers more ads on the phones.

Right now the deal only applies to two smartphones — the new Motorola Moto G and the BLU R1 HD — neither of which is available yet in the US, but are expected to ship on July 12th. The lock screen ads are not dissimilar from the ads that appear on Amazon’s Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets with “special offers,” as Amazon calls them.

Amazon’s Fire Phone was a dud (to say the least), but maybe this will work.

★ Wednesday, 29 June 2016