News: Amazon Fire Phone Flops

[Anonymous]

Amazon had an earnings call today where it was announced that they were essentially writing off $170 million after over estimating how successful the Fire phone would be.

With reportedly only 35,000 units sold in the US after 4 months and with $83million worth of devices still in stock, it's fair to say that the Amazon Fire has been a flop!

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2014/10/24/amazon-fire-phone-a-review-of-the-device-that-just-...

[jonsie]

Amen to that! Included in those losses I would expect big payments and incentives to networks (such as O2) and retail outlets as sweeteners to stock these phones which were laughingly pitched along similar upfront costs afforded to the Galaxy S5 and iphones.

It really is a case of sticking to what you're good at, Amazon didn't and have suffered the dire consequences. In the case of O2 I suspect part of their budget went to stocking this lemon at the expense of big brand names such as Blackberry, to name but one.

[anticpated]

I think it all got overshadowed by iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4. After all, nobody really wants a kindle in a smaller display with calling abilities. When you already have good options out there for a reasonable cost.

TBH I never ever seen any marketting for this; no reviews, unboxings or blogger opinions. It's no surprise it's been overlooked and forgotten about.

[viridis]

To be fair 99% of people who ordered the iPhone got the marketing for this by mistake.
I had a second look at one today in a store, still meh. Nothing stood out and can only be described as basically simple.
The prices, as stated, we're not something that in a normal situation i would attach to this phone.

[Cleoriff]

I thought this might be the case. I use Amazon a great deal and every time I went on the site over the last few months. this phone figured on the home page constantly...even flicking around and the phone was there....

Then suddenly it was gone....replaced by adverts from Amazon Prime Instant video....

A massive fail then.

Probably should stick to selling books?

[Anonymous]

I was hoping we'd see an end user come here and create a user review.

The ones I've seen on the Net don't portray it as a completely rubbish device.

[Cleoriff]

Thinking about it and on the flip side of  the coin, I would have expected it to have taken a bit longer for Amazon to write it off as a flop?

I admit I wouldnt have bought one.... BUT that was probably more due to the fact that phone experts on here didn't appear to like it ....

Had I not seen negative reviews, I may have been interested....as I am no expert.....:smileywink:

So, for others like me with limited technical phone knowledge..... it may have seemed a real good buy.....and only shown its true colours after it had been purchased?

[jonsie]

Maybe they need to add it to the tech trial for people to review. I had a decent play around with one in CPw and was less than impressed. Extended use may help to give an imformed opinion but as things stand it wouldn't hold a candle to the dedicated brand names.

[MI5]

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@jonsie wrote:

In the case ofO2 I suspect part of their budget went to stocking this lemon at the expense of big brand names such as Blackberry, to name but one.

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Whoever made these decisions needs their employment potential re-assessing

[Beenherebefore]

As I said elsewhere, Amazon were obviously willing to pay more than Blackberry.