EBay and Fandango, among the first merchants to build apps for Amazon’s Fire smartphone, are using the phone’s unique features to eliminate the number of taps and swipes between search, browse and purchase for a more streamlined shopping experience.

The Amazon Fire smartphone, which was introduced last month, boasts technologies such as Dynamic Perspective, which responds to the way a user holds, views and moves the phone, as well as Firefly, which recognizes things in the real world such as Web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR codes, movies, music and millions of products. The enhanced carousel enables users to see information related to an on the home screen without having to launch the app.

“Our new Fandango Fire app provides showtimes and ticketing opportunities as well as related content and video for movie discovery and planning,” says Mark Young, vice president of strategy and business development for Fandango.

“Fire phone users will notice the helpful list of top 10 most popular movies in theaters that is front and center on the home screen app widget, and thanks to the Fire phone’s dynamic perspective, a simple tilt of the phone will reveal additional details including fan ratings, parents’ reviews, release dates and custom playlists of videos related to the movie,” he said.

Full tilt
Fandango’s new movie discovery and ticketing app for the Amazon Fire phone showcases a top-10 movie list on the home screen carousel that deep links to show times at nearby theaters for faster on-the-go ticketing.

By leveraging the phone’s Dynamic Perspective technology, moviegoers can tilt their phone to reveal Fandango user movie reviews, navigate menus and see custom video content.

Fandango’s Fire phone app comes as the movie ticketing site continues to see strong results on mobile, with more than 50 percent of all ticket sales now on mobile devices.

The Amazon Fire phone’s sensors enable users to tilt it for additional content.

The company reports that sales via mobile grew 31 percent so far this year compared to last year.

EBay’s app for Amazon Fire enables shoppers to view top deals from the home screen.

Once a shopper is in the app and searching eBay’s inventory, the tilt gesture activates search refinements and filters without needing to tap the screen.

Challenges
The Amazon Fire phone is an ambitious attempt to address some of the biggest complaints when it comes to shopping on a mobile device. It promises to make it easy for users to find out more about products they see in the real world by simply pointing their camera at the item.

Registered users can complete a purchase with one click while Amazon Prime members can have it shipped for free.

However, challenges such as attribution, on-the-go connectivity and image recognition that does not always work like it is supposed to are still very real, pointing to some of the challenges Amazon faces with its new phone (see story).

Firefly lets users engage with things in the real world. 

Additionally, bricks-and-mortar retailers typically have an adversarial relationship with Amazon, who they see as usurping their sales, and may not be interested in building apps for the new phone.

For online merchants such as Fandango and eBay, the Amazon phone’s unique capabilities are proving attractive.

“We have a long-standing relationship with Amazon, serving consumers on their favorite devices and products, whether it’s working together on ticketing for the Kindle Fire tablets or powering ticketing on IMDb, and we expect to sell a lot of movie tickets together on the new Fire phones,” Mr. Young said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York