Why The Amazon Fire Phone Was A Complete Flop
The 2014 launch of the Amazon Fire Phone become the retail monolith’s first foray into the telecellsmartphone business. It got here with a 4.7-inch LCD, 13-Megapixel principal camera, and ran on its very own Android-primarily based totally Fire OS running system. Amazon’s first telecellsmartphone even got here with a completely unique function regarded as “Dynamic Perspective,” a characteristic that now no longer most effective gave its show a completely unique 3-D intensity effect, it additionally allowed customers to navigate the telecellsmartphone the usage of motion-primarily based totally gestures.
It had multiple Amazon-one of a kind capabilities as well, including a devoted Firefly button, which scans and identifies objects, and Mayday, a integrated assist table that gives round the clock purchaser aid, in line with Techradar. Other highlights consist of an HD decision show, a Snapdragon 800 chipset, 2GBs of RAM, and a hefty 2,400mAh battery capacity. With a telecellsmartphone that had lots extra taking place in it than the common flagship telecellsmartphone on the time, a few is probably questioning what should have in all likelihood long past so incorrect.
The Price Is Not Right
Well, it became out that lots did cross incorrect with the Amazon Fire Phone — beginning with its rate and exclusivity alone. The Fire Phone become released as an AT&T one of a kind, coming in at $199 for its 32GB version, and $299 for its 64GB variant, in conjunction with a two-yr settlement with the carrier. Its off-settlement rate become priced at $650, which become on par with competing flagships on the time, if now no longer a piece higher. The issue is, it did not provide extra than competing models, just like the iPhone 5S or the Samsung Galaxy S5, mainly given its rate.
Amazon Senior Vice President David Limp admitted the organization wasn’t capable of rate the Fire Phone correctly, explaining that the organization “mismatched expectations” of customers anticipating higher price from it, in line with Fortune. Amazon’s first telecellsmartphone went from having a $199 on-settlement rate tag, to having it slashed all of the manner right all the way down to just $0.99. To make subjects worse, the Fire Phone even obtained bad opinions on Amazon’s website, with clients bringing up troubles including having constrained app aid and heating troubles, amongst others.
It Came With Technical Difficulties
Pricing aside, the Amazon Fire Phone additionally had a slew of technical troubles from a consumer’s factor of view, in each the hardware and software program departments. One of its largest standout capabilities, the Dynamic Perspective, did not precisely paintings as perfectly as intended, making the entire revel in of navigating the telecellsmartphone extra bulky than convenient, in line with PCMag. Furthermore, its Fire OS app aid is seriously constrained, and now no longer getting access to Google Play’s plethora of apps most effective hampered its capabilities, now no longer to say its integrated Firefly or X-Ray apps did not precisely provide something that Android would not have already got an equal to.
At a aggressive rate that opponents different flagships, the Amazon Fire Phone definitely did not justify its rate-to-price ratio, mainly with its promoting factors acting extra gimmicky than industry-leading. It did not assist that telecellsmartphone’s interface become essentially designed to combine with Amazon’s very own services, restricting its user’s choices, at the same time as additionally forcing them to grow to be captured marketplace withinside the process. The end result is Amazon dropping out on over $eighty million really well worth in unsold units (through Fortune). Overall, Amazon’s first handset served as a failed strive at setting up its very own environment in the especially aggressive telecellsmartphone sphere, one it really is similarly highlighted through the massive extent of Fire Phones that did not depart the shelf.