But you have to consider R&D costs. If they get one million people to buy this phone over the next year, how many of those customers will buy more products from Amazon than they already were?
At $199, my gut tells me that the early adopters of this phone will largely be people who already use Amazon regularly.
The term "big winner" to me implies that the thought process is that they will win out over Samsung and Apple in the long run, but I don't think that is very likely anytime soon. I don't hate the move by Amazon because you have to start somewhere, but predicting them the winner as this device is first launched is very optimistic in my eyes.
If they can leverage that to reduce buying friction, then yes, that's exactly the right move!