Amazon launched its Fire Phone amid a blaze of hype – but the spark just wasn't there, and it's largely fizzled into oblivion.
The company isn't giving up on muscling into the crowded, competitive smartphone market, though. It's planning a follow-up to the Fire Phone; but don't expect it this Christmas. Perhaps not even next Christmas.
The earliest we can expect an Amazon phone is apparently 2016.
It's not like Amazon has been lying around weeping over the rejection. Apparently it has been working on a new model for months and "has gone back to the drawing board". The phone left Amazon with US$170 million of unsold inventory, which bore down hard on the company's financial results.
The Amazon Fire Phone packed in some unique features – most notably its 3D interface – but stumbled because Amazon attempted to enter a mature market with an expensive product, according to sources.
That suggests that the follow-up to the Fire Phone will likely be a cheaper model; the alternative is to pack the phone with innovative features, but as the original Fire Phone proves, innovative features don't always sell. One way or another, though, Amazon seems set on entering the smartphone market; we'll just have to see what happens next.
No comments:
Post a Comment