Having trouble increasing your subscription sales? Invent a device that does half the work!While this solution may not be viable for many publishing companies, it seems to be Amazon’s new approach for acquiring more Prime subscribers with its launch of a smartphone called Fire.That’s mainly because of “Firefly”, Amazon’s new service that lets users point to real-world objects and automatically load the items into their shopping carts. Low on toothpaste? Just point your phone to the empty tube and Amazon will send you another one.But what makes the service invaluable is if you have a Prime subscription, which guarantees free shipping. And to incentivize people to start using Firefly, Amazon is giving a free year’s subscription to all new users (or a year’s extension to existing subscribers who buy the $199 phone).By owning the device and multiple media formats (video, music, eBooks) via a subscription service, Amazon is combining the competitive advantage of Apple, Netflix and its own eCommerce offerings. My guess is that publishers will have a harder time brokering deals with Amazon as it amasses this much power — already there are signs that Amazon is trying to squeeze book publishers to make more money while still giving consumers a better deal.What do you think? Is Amazon morphing from a feel-good company to an evil giant like Apple?