AppleInsider Staff
E-commerce behemoth Amazon has reportedly begun to draw down engineering resources in its mobile phone team, shedding jobs and re-focusing efforts on tablets and other home electronics in the wake of the Fire Phone's dismal showing.
While the company has not ruled out producing another mobile phone, development of a next-generation device has been extended "indefinitely," according to the Wall Street Journal. Citing sources, the paper says that dozens of Fire Phone engineers have been let go in what is said to be the first round of layoffs in the history of Amazon's hardware division.
Amazon devices chief David Limp said late last year that the company erred when it chose to put the Fire Phone in the same pricing strata as other flagship handsets, including the iPhone. Even a massive cut to the subsidized cost of the device — Â from $199 to $0.99 — Â could not drive sales, however, and Amazon was eventually forced to take a $170 million charge related to Fire Phone development and unsold inventory.
That is believed to have forced a re-examination of Amazon's entire hardware effort, leading to the rollback of other ambitious products — Â like a smart stylus, a new type of projector, and a jumbo 14-inch tablet — Â that had been in various stages of development.
Now, Amazon's hardware group is said to have rededicated itself to home electronics. The recently-released Fire TV and Echo have been generally well-received by buyers, and the company is said to be working on a "high-end computer for the kitchen," continuing a decades-old effort by technology companies to embed computing into what is the most popular room in many homes.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
50 Comments
And in other news, the US DoJ is prosecuting Apple because of Bezos' decision to fire engineers working on phones.
I would not want one, but it was never really discounted heavily. Dropping the price from $750 to $550 (to make a zero dollar subsidized phone) is not going to move the phone in the low cost markets or to people who want a phone bought outright.
Windows phones have been priced down to $200 WITHOUT subsidy. Basically Amazon didn't even try. They never fixed the glaring failures with the phone like not having a regular Android market nor did they add many compelling features other then the voice system.
LOL.
Amazon - failed
Samsung - failing
Microsoft - failed with Nokia
Google - failed with Motorolla
LG - about to go bankrupt
Sony - about to close phone division
HTC - about to go bankrupt
All the big boys will soon be out of the high end phone game. All that's left is a bunch of cheap piece of shit phone makers like Xiaomi and even the former CEO of Apple Scully's phones. LOL. Middle class Chinese don't want to be caught dead with those POS phones.
By 2022 there is suppose to be 650 million middle class Chinese. Probably close to 60% will buy iPhones. That's almost 400 million iPhones sold in China alone. That is about 160 million a year based on upgrade cycles.
To those haters who said iPhone growth is over.....its just beginning. China alone will allow Apple to grow iPhone units at 15-20% for the next 5 years. And after that we have India that will spur on growth for the next 5 years. We are talking about a decade of solid 15-20% unit growth.
A lot optimistic but I don't disagree with the direction. There will not be that many middle class Chinese and even if 40% of them guy with an iPhone on longer upgrade cycles it is still a hell of a lot of phones. I can see worldwide iPhone sales slowly climbing to 80 million a year with 10% growth. The profits will be INSANE.
[quote name="sog35" url="/t/187892/amazon-to-forego-future-phone-development-following-fire-phone-failure#post_2766508"]LOL. Amazon - failed Samsung - failing Microsoft - failed with Nokia Google - failed with Motorolla LG - about to go bankrupt Sony - about to close phone division HTC - about to go bankrupt All the big boys will soon be out of the high end phone game. All that's left is a bunch of cheap piece of shit phone makers like Xiaomi and even the former CEO of Apple Scully's phones. LOL. Middle class Chinese don't want to be caught dead with those POS phones. By 2022 there is suppose to be 650 million middle class Chinese. Probably close to 60% will buy iPhones. That's almost 400 million iPhones sold in China alone. That is about 160 million a year based on upgrade cycles. To those haters who said iPhone growth is over.....its just beginning. China alone will allow Apple to grow iPhone units at 15-20% for the next 5 years. And after that we have India that will spur on growth for the next 5 years. We are talking about a decade of solid 15-20% unit growth. [/quote] Thanks sog. Once again you beat me to it. The death of the Amazon phone was going to happen sooner or later. They will all drop to the wayside sooner or later. Even Google will be tempted (though I doubt they will).
What do people expect? The market is saturated!! People prefer the product that earned (and is burning) its reputation as a fantastic handheld computing appliance for real people (not geeks). Then there's the other product. Every company trying to get into the same level of success with the same type of product is just further clogging up an already saturated market. Then people act shocked. If the new product isn't actually revolutionary, don't expect to do more than reach the few remaining people that haven't already jumped on (or who have chosen to shift platforms).