Amazon to offer Prime members discounts on Motorola Moto G and BLU R1 HI in exchange for the ability to pre-install Amazon apps and put ads on lock screens
With Ads Jared DiPane / iMore : Amazon Prime Day makes its triumphant return on July 12 Kris Carlon / Android Authority : The BLU R1 HD redefines what you can get for under $100 Kat Hall / The Register : Amazon slashes mobe prices to get more eyes on lockscreen ads Don Davis / internetretailer.com : Amazon Prime Day will be July 12 Josh Smith / Gotta Be Mobile : 2016 Amazon Prime Day Deals, Details and Dates Rob Price / Business Insider : Amazon is starting to sell cheaper phones with adverts on the lockscreen Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE : Amazon now offering discounted Android phones with their own ads and apps Philip Michaels / Tom's Guide : Deal or No Deal? Amazon Prime Offers Ad-Supported Phones Chris Mills / BGR : Walmart's Amazon Prime competitor is here, and you can try it for free Ryan Whitwam / Geek.com : Amazon starts selling unlocked Android phones as low as $50 with built-in ads Nate Hoffelder / The Digital Reader : Amazon Finally Launches the Fire Phone We Always Expected, Only it's Not Called That John Brandon / Computerworld : The triumphant and woefully short-sighted return of ad-supported gadgets Madison Malone Kircher / New York Magazine : Love Ads? Boy, Do We Have the Phone for You Rex Crum / SiliconBeat : Amazon's back in the smartphone game, in a way Derek Walter / Greenbot : Amazon is slashing $50 off the Moto G4 and Blu R1 HD in exchange for lockscreen ads Iyaz Akhtar / CNET : Big Windows 10 update scheduled for August Alex Wagner / Android and Me : Amazon is discounting unlocked Android phones and loading them with lock screen ads Paul Sawers / VentureBeat : Amazon sells cheap Android phones to Prime members in exchange for lockscreen ads and offers Caleb Denison / Digital Trends : Facebook puts friends first in your feed thanks to transparent News Feed Values adoption Brian Deagon / Investor's Business Daily : Amazon Expands Prime Membership With Discounted Unlocked Smartphones David Ruddock / Android Police : Amazon is now selling unlocked phones at a discount in exchange for giving you bloatware and ads Todd R. Weiss / eWeek : Amazon Prime Users Can Buy Unlocked Android Phones at Up to 50% Off Jose Vilches / TechSpot : Amazon will subsidize Android phones like the Moto G with on-screen ads Lisa Eadicicco / TIME : Amazon Is Selling Seriously Discounted Phones, But There's a Catch Brian Fagioli / BetaNews : Amazon subsidizing unlocked smartphones with ads — a big win for Prime members Jared Peters / TalkAndroid.com : Amazon will subsidize certain Android phones with ads and bloatware Brittany Vincent / Engadget : Amazon is offering deep smartphone discounts for Prime members Tweets: John R. Kirk / @johnkirk : The problem is that advertisers really want to target those who reject, not those who accept, this Faustian bargain. http://www.recode.net/... Danny Sullivan / @dannysullivan : Eric Schmidt once suggested ads would subsidize phones. http://www.nbcnews.com/... — Amazon beat Google to that punch. http://twitter.com/... Rich DeMuro / @richdemuro : Interesting. Amazon now selling two budget Android phones at $50/$150 - with lockscreen ads http://www.businesswire.com/ ... http://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This deal is the consumer-facing version of a push Amazon began earlier in 2016, when it was reportedly asking OEMs to bake its services into Android at the factory level — an approach Google's contracts constrained. Instead of getting inside the firmware, Amazon is buying the placement directly: discount the Moto G and BLU R1 HD for Prime members in exchange for pre-installed apps and lock-screen ads.
Timing matters — Prime Day lands July 12, so cheap ad-carrying phones widen the funnel right before Amazon's biggest shopping event. It also extends the logic of the Unlocked storefront experiment from giving away paid apps to effectively giving away hardware margin.
First-order effects
- Prime members get sub-$100-class pricing on the Moto G and BLU R1 HD immediately, while BLU gains a distribution channel from Amazon's storefront that its own brand power could not buy.
- Buyers trade lock-screen real estate and default Amazon apps for the discount — the phone's home screen becomes Amazon inventory from day one.
Second-order effects
- Other budget Android makers face pressure to accept similar terms to stay price-competitive on Amazon's shelf, deepening the tension with Google over how far OEMs can customize Android.
- Amazon converts a one-time device sale into a recurring commerce surface: every discounted handset is a persistent ad slot feeding Prime Day-style purchasing.
Third-order effects
- The model's economics proved fragile: by early 2018 Amazon removed the lock-screen ads and raised prices by $20, then issued store credit to customers who had paid to remove ads — evidence that ad-subsidized hardware pricing was hard to sustain once backlash mounted.
- The longer pattern points toward Amazon bundling connectivity itself — the 2023 talks with Verizon, T-Mobile, Dish, and AT&T over low-cost or free Prime member service extend the same playbook from subsidized phones to subsidized service.
The trend: Amazon keeps trading discounts for control of the customer relationship — first apps on the lock screen, then service plans — turning hardware into a subscriber-acquisition cost.