With the Fire Phone, Amazon launched its own smartphone in 2014; today, no one talks about it anymore. Amazon’s attempt to play in the smartphone market ended as quickly as it began.
What kind of smartphone is it about? In June 2014, Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon, presented Amazon’s first smartphone: the Fire Phone. In the end, the model became a huge financial failure for Amazon, and the remaining stock was eventually liquidated.
Today, hardly anyone talks about Amazon’s failed project.
The Fire Phone was too ambitious for its time
Why did the Fire Phone fail? Wirtschaftswoche explained in its 2015 article that Bezos made a critical mistake during development: While previous innovations were always guided by customer needs, with the Fire Phone, Bezos himself was said to be the reference customer. This is reported by FastCompany magazine (Paywall).
Bezos was also said to have introduced more and more ideas into the development, new suggestions and wishes. In the end, Amazon reportedly developed the Fire Phone both in terms of features and price completely overlooking customer preferences:
- The starting price of $199 (or $650 later without a contract) was surprisingly high for many and deterred potential buyers.
- Amazon exclusively tied the Fire Phone to the US mobile carrier AT&T with a one-year contract. A decision that further limited the potential customer base.
- The Fire OS operating system was based on Android but was heavily modified and excluded popular Google services like Maps and Gmail, which limited its attractiveness.
- The exclusive features like 3D display and Firefly scan technology were technically exciting but hardly convinced in everyday use and offered little added value compared to the competition.
What happened to the Fire Phone next? A year later, the device was discontinued: in May 2015 in Germany and in August 2015 also in the USA. Amazon had to write off half a billion US dollars due to the Fire Phone.
The last devices were sold for a fraction of their original price: in the end, the Fire Phone was more or less given away for 99 cents, reports the English-language magazine Cnet.com.
What remains? The Fire OS operating system is still used today in numerous Amazon Fire devices: from the Fire tablet to the Fire TV stick. Amazon has not introduced a new smartphone since.
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