Amazon has announced its Prime exclusive phones will no longer feature lock screen ads, the very reason those phones came into being and were offered at a discount. The slightly lower price bait also ensured there weren’t any dearth of users opting for such phones even though having to see an ad each time the phone is picked up is the least pleasing experience.
Such ads will cease to exist on Prime Exclusive phones that will be on sale starting February 07, Amazon stated. Those Prime Exclusive phones already in the wild will also get rid of the ads via a software update due next week.
Amazon claimed the move is being done in view of the changed scenario where advanced facial recognition and fingerprint sensors (maybe the company is referring to under screen sensors here) have either become or is expected to become the norm in the near future.
As such buyers will have less of a hassle unlocking such phone if there are no lock screen ads to contend with. As of now, users of such Prime Exclusive phones are required to press upon the fingerprint sensor twice to unlock the same.
Amazon has however clarified members of the Prime Exclusive program will still be able to avail of the discount option. As such, new unlocked versions of popular phone models will continue to be on offer. Further, the update to rid existing Prime Exclusive phones of the ads will also be provided free of cost.
That said, while the Prime phone will still be priced lower than their retail prices, there will be a $20 increase in their prices. So effectively, buyers are paying $20 to break free of the ads, which means all of it isn’t exactly free in the truest sense of the term.
Also, the phones will continue to have Amazon app pre-loaded, along with a special offers widget for the home screen. Luckily those can be removed at will, which wasn’t the case earlier. Other Prime benefits remain just the same. Those include access to millions of songs, thousands of TV Shows and movies, free unlimited photo storage, 2-day free shipping and such.
