
Amazon’s Phone Failure - edward
http://stevecoast.com/2017/01/04/amazons-phone-failure/
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mamurphy
The author's conclusion that calling the Fire phones a failure and the Alexas
a success is "just pos-hoc narrative" is a bit tautological. If you are
evaluating the performance of something in the past and labelling it as a
success or failure, you are going to be making post-hoc narrative. Why "just"
post-hoc narrative? Is there something wrong with analysis of past events?

Saying that the Redkins lost too much this season including last weekend
because of failure to address personnel needs on defense, thereby missing the
playoffs is "just post-hoc narrative." But talking about why you think an
organization did well or poorly isn't useless.

On the one hand, yes, the author is right. Fire and Alexa were experiments
before we knew how they turned out, and a company making experiments can be a
good thing. On the other, there were indicators that Fire might not be a good
experiment and Alexa might be, and perhaps Amazon wasn't as keyed in as it
could have been to these indicators.

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webaholic
This failure seems to be one reason for them to run out of Alexas during the
shopping season. They are being extra careful not to get burnt with unsold
hardware like the phones.

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PaulHoule
Can't blame them for trying to make a phone. A phone is one of the few things
where people get $700 from a $700 phone just because it costs $700.

