
Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents - pcl
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/technology/amazon-struggling-fire-phone.html?_r=0
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bruceb
Not sure why this phone wasn't $399 off contract in the first place.

Amazon is repeating HP mistake of thinking they have product that is the same
level as Apple and pricing it the same. The Touchpad was released at $499 the
same as the Ipad 2 at the time.

For a company that is well known to have thin margins were they thinking $649
is something people were going to pay? Get the phone out with a lot of people
using it and then sell the Fire phone 2 for $499 next time.

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georgemcbay
Still not interested in signing a 2 year contract with AT&T or owning an
Android phone that doesn't include all of the reasons I still own an Android
phone (Maps, Now, etc) instead of some other Linux variant phone or a Windows
Phone.

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TheMagicHorsey
Kindle is Amazon's best consumer brand. I don't know why they made a Fire
phone. They should have made a Kindle phone, and positioned it as the phone
for "Readers".

Positioning matters the most, of course, but I think they could have actually
put in some features designed specifically for reading on a smaller screen: 1)
scroll wheel that you can use with your thumb to easily flip or scroll through
windows of content, with precision. Sort of like the scroll button on a mouse,
but on the side of the phone, positioned so you can use your thumb on it,
while the phone is held one-handed. 2) Maybe an e-ink screen and an insane
battery life. Might suck for videos, but it would definitely be a
differentiator and might attract people that love to read on their phones. 3)
Cut down on the apps and other features. Go the opposite direction from other
phone makers and make a very basic phone. I'm talking about just phone calls,
calendar, calculator, browser, email, text, camera. Nothing else. And in
exchange for that, the consumer gets a very cheap phone, and insane battery
life.

I think some people would like that. I would. I have enough devices to do my
media consumption on. I would love to have a phone that last 2-3 days on one
charge again ... like my old Nokia used to. I love how my Kindle reader lasts
the whole month. I don't expect that out of a phone ... but if you gave me a
week long battery, and an e-ink reader built into that ... you have me as a
customer. I'll watch my Youtube and Facebook when I get home.

I might be too old to be relevant. But I'm sure there are a few snowflakes
like me around.

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pinkyand
They are mainly interested in the phone as sales devices. To sell stuff you
need color.

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rdl
Making the phone something people genuinely want, first, then adding features
to support sales, would probably better accomplish that.

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ihsw
They could offer the phone for free, plus two years of free Amazon Prime, plus
free $100 gift card to Amazon, and I still wouldn't get it.

Getting locked up with AT&T is not worth it.

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badusername
It's interesting how the dynamics work these days, and how Amazon just doesn't
seem to be getting it. People are perfectly happy to sign a 2-year contract on
a well-designed fully-rounded functional phone, they do that by the tens of
millions. They even pay $200 to get the phone. The phone has become personal,
and also a necessity as you go through the day. Going through 2 years on a
badly designed phone just because somebody gave it to you for free doesn't
really makes sense anymore.

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largote
This may seem weird in Silicon Valley, but even in the US, a lot of people
don't have $200 to pay for a phone.

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pitnips
Then they probably don't have enough money for a subscription service, and if
they do, they're better off with a non-smart (dumb?) phone.

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largote
There are some subscription services that are quite affordable and not having
a cell phone in the modern world is not really an option.

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pitnips
You need to compare "quite affordable" with the $200 price of a smart phone.
Because $200 seems "quite affordable" for a smart phone that can do pretty
much anything and everything. And I never suggested not having a cell phone.

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brudgers
I suspect Amazon is in the space for the long haul and the Fire Phone is an
open beta. They got phones out into the world; they found out to whom their
brand on a phone is appealing (0.2% of mobile use is still a lot of people in
terms of raw numbers); Amazon is able to collect live data on real use; and
they can correlate all of this against the Kindle and Fire and their sales of
physical goods.

To put it another way, they couldn't get this data any other way. It's not
dissimilar to Microsoft and the Pre - real field testing is expensive but the
only realistic way to come up with a long term strategy. And like Microsoft
mobile phones are an important space for Amazon, but not necessarily core
critical.

Apple doesn't have warehouses full of shoes and appliance parts and used books
and neither does Google. Amazon's core is selling things that aren't on the
cloud.

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grandalf
In case anyone at Amazon is reading: I own a Kindle Fire and the only thing I
don't love about is the nav. I wish I could turn off the carousel style nav
and just use a normal tablet/phone style nav with icons.

Not sure if the phone has that UI but if so it would be a reason I would not
consider buying one.

(It's possible that with some UX improvements the core idea would work, the
problem is that it doesn't work now).

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nicholas73
I bought a Kindle Fire used for 65, and am contemplating buying a full price
iPad next instead. The little things add up.

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cloudwalking
Perhaps I am missing something, but I don't understand the appeal of this
phone. Its only real differentiator seems to be the "instant customer service"
feature.

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otakucode
I think the glasses-free 3D through gaze tracking is what they expected to be
the selling point... I also think that Bezos made a big mistake with this, and
that he's such a hard-nosed jerk that he'll do a lot of damage to Amazon
trying to force this to succeed before he will admit he was wrong. The phone
market is totally saturated, why even bother with it?

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dcre
I was really disappointed with the 3D when I tried it. Yes, the eye tracking
is interesting and works reasonably well, but it's not in any way paradigm-
shifting. I definitely didn't feel anything like I was seeing a historically
significant innovation.

Most importantly, as far as I can tell, it doesn't make any existing
smartphone activities easier or faster, nor does it make possible any new
category of activity. Games are neat, but who is going to make games for a
platform no one is on?

I agree with the other commenter, however, that Amazon is mostly interested in
gathering detailed data on how people use their phones, and even a small
percentage of the market is still a lot of useful data. They may learn
something interesting (those eye-tracking cameras aren't there just for the
sake of the UI), in which case they will be better positioned to increase
their market share if they want to.

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serve_yay
Amazon doesn't depend on these devices like Apple or other manufacturers do.
They can afford to take their lumps on this iteration and come out with better
versions over the years. Not to deny that this phone appears to be a serious
flop.

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nazgulnarsil
The phone I got for $99 OFF contract is better than that phone.

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arenaninja
Article content notwithstanding, calling it the "Amazon Fizzle" is a great
burn.

As a prime subscriber, I'd feel that I get more value for my subscription if
they finally made their streaming work on Android devices (I'm not sure if it
works on iOS). There is no app and the last time I checked, firefox on android
also wouldn't play the content. This phone just reinforces in me the idea that
I shouldn't renew my subscription, because the free streaming is elusive
because it doesn't play on my platform of choice, only that of amazon's
choosing

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MichaelGG
Amazon just launched the Prime Instant Video feature on Android.

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arenaninja
Wow, what a major disappointment. Apparently available for phones, not for
tablets, which is what I'm waiting for

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mpg33
Not sure why they got in the phone business. Seemed like a bad idea to me.

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reality_czech
I'd buy that for a dollar!

Oh wait. No I wouldn't.

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poopsintub
How does news from three days ago get up-voted to the front page?

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SixSigma
with the arrows at the side

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canadaj
I've been scanning my monitor and sending the articles via mail to my friends
and family in order for it to gain traction. I think I'll try your way from
now on!

