Amazon Fire Phone was a Flop Because of AT&T

[dgstorm]

We found an interesting new report about the massive failure that is the Amazon Fire Phone. It turns out that it may have been AT&T's fault. The reason it turned out to be AT&T's fault is a small convoluted mess.

The quick summation is that Amazon and HTC were collaborating since last year on a budget smartphone of some kind. Supposedly, AT&T got wind of it and decided to step in by insisting on an exclusive deal. They pressured Amazon by refusing to do the higher end Amazon Fire phone if they didn't also get exclusive rights to both phones.

In the end, Amazon killed the team-up with HTC and AT&T still insisted on an exclusive deal with Amazon for the Fire Phone. As has been shown time and time again, too much exclusivity on a device can severely hamper the success of that device. This also destroyed Amazon's chance to enter the smartphone market with a budget-friendly product category which could have generated more branding buzz. Thus was born the eventual downfall of the Amazon Fire Phone.

On top of this, there were supposedly talks in which Amazon might have been considering an acquisition of HTC. Unfortunately, (assuming these reports are true), AT&T's strong-arm tactics derailed all of this.

Source: TheInformation

 

[xeene]

Anything att touches turns to **** eventually.

 

[UltraDroid]

Anything att touches turns to **** eventually.

(nodding my head) They're almost as bad as Verizon on that respect.

Sent from my Note 3, using magic ...

 

[boidsonly]

Amazon entered into the ATT agreement voluntarily-no one made them sign on the dotted line. They would have had a better chance going with EVERY OTHER carrier and bypassing ATT. May still have been a flop, but then they would entirely own the blame...

 

[pc747]

Not saying att is not at fault, but the reason the phone sucked was based on the device. The moto x suffered from the exclusive issue with att as well and was able to bounce back to become a hot item. It would be one thing if amazon could only sell it through att, but amazon not only have their own store but plastered advertising of the device all over. What is it att's fault that your other devices flopped as well? Maybe just maybe you should either revamp you device where it does more than make people buy from your store. Sorry but when I buy a phone I do not need to be directed to your store every time I click something, I know where the store is thank you plus some of us use our devices for more than buying something.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mountainbikermark]

Amazon killed the Fire fly when they decided to lock it down as tightly as a Fire tablet, long before AT&T got a hold of it.

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

 

[Sajo]

This is just my 2 cents (no sense?) worth. We have to look at this from a normal user perspective, not as a Tech Head. To most normal users, specs on paper are not important; they probably never see a spec sheet. So I don’t think the Fire phone’s specs had much to do with it. I think most folks take interest in a phone for three reasons:

1) They like the way it looks & feels; it looks “cool”

2) The price is in their budget range

3) It’s available to them

The Fire phone failed 2 out of 3 of those, in my opinion. The phone may look cool to a lot of people, so rule that one out (just for arguments sake). But it was too expensive for most folks. There are too many other phones that are just as nice or nicer for less money…even On Contract. And then there is availability: If someone on Verizon, T Mobile or Sprint even was interested…Nope…Sorry…you can’t have one. Only AT&T customers allowed! I think the phone was doomed for those two reasons. A lot of normal, everyday users love Kindle Fire tablets, so having a similar OS on a phone would not be a big deal to them. It would be to the more tech-savvy users that don’t like the locked down Fire OS; but they are probably a small percentage of the market. This phone was on my list of options when I first heard about it…I was interested. I like my Kindle Fire HD and thought a Fire phone might be nice. As soon as I learned it was an AT&T exclusive that shot it down for me. After seeing one, I am 99.9% sure I would not have bought one anyway, but the lack of availability on all carriers sucked. Like @pc747 said: the Moto X looked a little doomed also at first…with the AT&T exclusive Moto Maker custom phones for a few months. Once the Moto Maker custom phones opened up to all carriers…boom…hot ticket item. Again, that’s just my opinion…but I don’t think the Fire OS or embedded Amazon atmosphere was the down fall.

 

[cr6]

Well put sajokaz. My sentiments exactly.

tap'n on my S5

 

[xeene]

You got to remember it's a world economy not just USA and when you lock out 99% of world population from obtaining the device, of course it's going to flop when even that 1% can obtain a more versatile device for same or lower cost.

Heck amazon need to focus more on China then United States. One of china's mobile carriers has oh...only 760 million subscribers compared to atts 116 million.

 

[cybertec69]

No other carrier wanted to touch this Fire phone, same as the Facebook phone that ended up in AT&T'S bargain bin at 99 cents.