Andre Yoskowitz
31 Oct 2014 1:16
The Amazon Fire Phone was and remains a disaster for Amazon, and the company finally confirmed it by taking a $170 million loss in the last quarter.
Company senior vice president of devices David Limp has admitted this week that the device was mispriced. "We didn't get the price right," Limp says. "I think people come to expect a great value, and we sort of mismatched expectations. We thought we had it right. But we're also willing to say, 'we missed.' And so we corrected."
When the device launched, Amazon stuck to standard industry pricing, selling its base model phone for $199 with two-year contract, which it also foolishly made an AT&T exclusive. Within two months, in an effort to move stock, Amazon dropped the price to just 99 cents with contract.
Despite the price drop and significant OS updates since launch, Limp says the company still has $83 million in surplus unsold phones, a huge amount of excess inventory for a phone that is still having issues selling.
Source:
Fortune