The Evolution of the Amazon Kindle in 1 GIF

Like many other companies, Amazon has a history of coming out of the gates with underwhelming products with clunky execution.  One can simply look at the original Kindle as an example.  While the Kindle would ultimately evolve into the e-reader leader, the 1st generation Kindle was ugly and unfocused compared to the competitors at the time.  As you can see above, the keyboard was jam packed with unnecessary keys with questionable placement.  For instance, they included a dedicated forward slash button in the 2nd gen version that was immediately removed with the 3rd gen.  They made significant changes over the next two generations before ditching the keyboard altogether.  It has became clear that Amazon's media and app ecosystem is their main focus and that making competitive hardware has taken a back seat.

If the Fire Phone is any indication, Amazon is going to continue with that strategy and release generic black slates that make it as easy as possible to buy things from Amazon.  The mock-up below isn't too far from reality today.  One can only hope that the hardware will evolve to provide something more unique to the table than a paralax UI.