Is the Amazon Fire Phone 2014's biggest Tech flop?

[Bateluer]

Like, Microsoft Kin level flop?

BGR thinks so

https://bgr.com/2014/08/26/amazon-fire-phone-sales-4/

A flop for the ages: Fire Phone estimated to have sold 35,000 units at most

The reasons for the Fire Phone’s flop are numerous and obvious: It was launched as an exclusive on AT&T, it was priced as highly as established brands such as the iPhone and the Galaxy S series even though it was a very late entrant, and it didn’t offer any compelling features outside of a 3D display and other gimmicks. In retrospect, comparisons between the Fire Phone and HTC’s ill-fated “Facebook Phone” may have been unfair to the Facebook phone.

https://bgr.com/2014/08/06/amazon-fire-phone-sales-3/

Of the 1,000 people who participated in the survey, only 5% of respondents said they would buy a Fire Phone, compared to 43.8% for an iPhone, 32.6% for Android phones (including Samsung, HTC, Nexus and others), 6.8% for a BlackBerry, and 5.3% for a Windows Phone.

You know you done fvcked up when more people want a Blackberry than your phone.



My own opinion, I haven't met anyone anywhere who had any interest in the Fire Phone. Think it can be salvaged? Its already free on contract, but still exclusive to AT&T. Think availability on other carriers would help?

 

[Red Storm]

Fact is, it will be near impossible to break into the smartphone market at this point. There needs to be something really radical to offer an opening, and currently it's not there.

I don't know of anyone who seriously thought Amazon had a chance with their Fire phone. It was DOA from the very beginning.

 

[Uppsala9496]

If the fire phone was unlocked and sold at a loss, then it may have been a hit. Sell it at $100 unlocked and you will get some traction in the market.

 

[Eug]

I didn't even remember what Microsoft Kin was. I had to look it up.

 

[Phokus]

If the fire phone was unlocked and sold at a loss, then it may have been a hit. Sell it at $100 unlocked and you will get some traction in the market.

Not even. You'd have to PAY me money to use that damn phone.

 

[Eug]

Not even. You'd have to PAY me money to use that damn phone.

Indeed. Or maybe I'd take the phone if it was free, as a backup phone. But I wouldn't pay a dime for it.

I prefer iPhones, but if I were looking for a cheap phone that I'd actually pay for myself, I'd probably get a lower end Android phone or a Windows phone.

Then again, I kind of felt the same way for the Fire tablet, and that was more popular.

 

[Kneedragger]

Yeah I have a friend that got it on day one which I don't know why but doesn't care for it.

 

[Mopetar]

I know someone who worked for Microsoft around the time the Kin came out who had some good stories about it. Apparently Sinofsky hated it and did just about everything he could to sabotage it.

 

[Red Storm]

Not even. You'd have to PAY me money to use that damn phone.

Heck I wouldn't get it even if they did pay me.

 

[preslove]

Amazon should have released a cheap unlocked android phone with Amazon services already installed. They could have sold tons of v those

 

[spaceman]

the price made it a loser
i think of amazon, i think value
i think kindle fire
i was hoping to see $200 off contract phone on any carrier(or $150)

 

[Bateluer]

If the fire phone was unlocked and sold at a loss, then it may have been a hit. Sell it at $100 unlocked and you will get some traction in the market.

I don't know about a 'hit', but at that price, the lack of app ecosystem is irrelevant to the people shopping in the prepaid/sub-100 dollar smartphone market.

 

[cronos]

They swung and missed, completely. Pissed me off big time because I knew they could've done so much better.

But hey, it's Amazon. They can afford mistakes like this. Now they know not to do it again, and move on.

 

[Strk]

the price made it a loser
i think of amazon, i think value
i think kindle fire
i was hoping to see $200 off contract phone on any carrier(or $150)

The fact that the specs were so underwhelming for the price didn't help. When it comes down to it, it is a marketplace portal. Why sell it for the maximum profit? The Kindle Fires aren't sold at a big premium, so why should the phone?

 

[Roland00Address]

So why could they not have done just a skin on a google play phone?

• Why don't you push something like 1 free year of amazon prime including prime videos that you get for free for you went the amazon fire phone route.
  
• Hell since you control the phone, allow people to download the videos to their phone over wifi, but it is DRM locked so while it resides on internal storage you can't view the videos unless you are over wifi or cell phone towers to get a temporary unlock token to watch the videos.
  
• It would still be easy to push Amazon Services hard since you control the videos you can do ads directly before the videos reminding people to buy more amazon books, amazon fireTV, kindle fires, etc.
  
• You could have custom apps that allow you to scan things at the grocery store via the upc and automatically put items in your amazon shopping cart so if you do not need item X today you can get it cheaper via delivered to your door.
  
• Realize your advantage is you can make shopping easier, you control the software to focus on how you can make it far easier to shop.

Seriously Amazon, why are you fighting Google? Fighting is counterproductive, instead play to your strengths and say you can have what google gives but it is so much better when you have google+amazon. Instead they went with crappy 3D which no one wants. Google has a marketcap 3 times more than you, has engineers and software designers who do this as a primary focus (not a side project), and it has years of inertia and a dedicated install base. This was doomed to fail unless your phone has something WOW attached to it.

 

[vi edit]

Who *didn't* see this coming? Well, besides Amazon? The thing was universally panned. You would have thought some one involved in the project on the Amazon side would have sniffed out the market and raised the "Should we do this?" flag.

 

[poofyhairguy]

It seems like Amazon used to try to appeal to the savvy in the market. Those who actually read books, like cutting edge tech, and who appreciate Amazon for giving them a good hardware value.

I feel they looked over at Apple's profit margins and began to think "we need to come down a notch." Hence things like the Mayhem feature, which might as well be called the "Yes Grandma can have a tablet too" button. Somewhere along the way, Amazon went from devices tech savvy people loved to devices they could stand to devices you would have to pay us to use.

The Fire Phone is the end result of this thinking- an expensive phone filled with more gee-wiz gimmicks than a Michael Bay movie. Unlike the Fire tablets which have some fans on here, NO ONE has said they want a Fire phone despite it being on every box I buy from Amazon. That is telling.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Seriously Amazon, why are you fighting Google?

They don't want to pay Google nor do they want to stick to Google's rules to get the Play Store.

 

[Ravynmagi]

It's amazing that Amazon spent years and god knows how much money to build this phone. The dynamic perspective thing is just not needed on a phone, which I assume is a big portion of the cost and time of this product.

I agree with most everyone else. Amazon should have build a very cheap phone that was a platform for their products. Amazon could probably build something pretty nice and almost give it away if it was a product that would help drive more sales to their store.

Though I really do hope Amazon gives up on it's stupid app store eventually and brings in Google Play. I think Amazon it's shooting itself in the foot there.

PS. And I agree, this seems like the biggest tech flop of the year that I can remember. Though the Apple announcement is just a few minutes away.... haha.

 

[trmiv]

I don't get how anyone inside Amazon though this thing was a good idea. There had to be a few dissenting voices that were like "what the hell are we making this thing for?" I'm guessing they were quickly sacked after Jeff Bezos got wind though.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Honestly I think the HTC First was more of a success. First of all, it was a decent phone once you replaced the launcher. Secondly, it fell from $99 to $0 which was bad but not a huge drop. How Amazon EVER thought their phone was was $199 WITH SUBSIDY shocks me.

The worst part about the Fire Phone was those terrible commercials with the kids. They had a cute concept (new technology makes the luddites feel old) and they went too far with it.

 

[cronos]

I think this discussion isn't going anywhere as everyone pretty much agrees that the Fire Phone sucks

As someone mentioned above, we have some pretty opinionated people here in MD&G and ever since the Fire Phone came out, I don't think I've read a single post that defends it. That should be a good sign that it definitely is the biggest tech flop this year

 

[poofyhairguy]

Right? We have people that still defend Blackberries for crying out loud. That means the target customer base for this device doesn't exist.

 

[tdawg]

The worst part about the Fire Phone was those terrible commercials with the kids. They had a cute concept (new technology makes the luddites feel old) and they went too far with it.

Man, I hated those commercials! Worst ad campaign in a while.

I would have been tempted by the phone if it was $99 and included a year of Prime. I would have given it a shot at least and even if I threw it out after a month, I would have still the rest of my Prime membership that would have been the actual value of the entire deal.

 

[Deeko]

So why could they not have done just a skin on a google play phone?

Everyone kicks and screens about those. People wouldn't be happy about that, either.

Seriously Amazon, why are you fighting Google? Fighting is counterproductive,

Because they're huge rivals in multiple categories?

Google has a marketcap 3 times more than you, has engineers and software designers who do this as a primary focus (not a side project), and it has years of inertia and a dedicated install base. This was doomed to fail unless your phone has something WOW attached to it.

3x the market cap? That's not that big of a difference - they're both massive companies with huge talent pools. You do realize that a few years ago, Android was just a little side project for Google, not a focus, right? Similarly, the Kindle was just an experiment until it was a massive success. To say "there's no point in competing with Google" is utter nonsense and if everyone actually believed that, it would be immeasurably bad for the industry.

Anyway, the Fire Phone was overpriced, underpowered, and shouldn't have been exclusive. If they'd sold it direct, unlocked, for cheap (not unlike the original Kindle Fire), they might have had a chance to be a little disruptive. But, they also might not care how well the first one does. This could be an experiment. Maybe the 2nd iteration will be competitive. We'll see.

I do find it interesting that I know quite a few Amazon employees and none of them have or are interested in this phone.