Amazon CEO: Why The Fire Phone Disaster Was A Good Thing

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Not only does Jeff Bezos think that learning from your mistakes is a good thing, he says his company is prepared to make even bigger mistakes in the future. Bigger than the Fire phone? Wow! :eek:

"If you think that's a big failure, we're working on much bigger failures right now. And I am not kidding. And some of them are going to make the Fire Phone look like a tiny little blip," Bezos said in an interview with The Washington Post's executive editor, Martin Baron, on Wednesday.
 
gotta admire bezos think anyother company that was in amazons position would gone to try thier own phone. had it worked out it would have made them a player.

like we say here, only cunts dont learn from their mistakes
 
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Picked up a GSM unlocked Fire Phone when it was on sale for $160 with a free year of Prime...thing is awesome. Full native access to Amazon's entire library of music, video, books, and store right in my pocket...even when used as a Wi-Fi device without activated phone service (have it on Cricket now). It's a shame it didn't catch on.
 
amazon will be releasing another phone soon
 
The Fire Phone wasn't a complete disaster. It was a solid attempt and they did learn a lot from it and it sure didn't break the company or destroy Amazon's brand reputation. It's the cost of innovation at scale and being 1st to market.
 
Jashtis.jpg
 
The fire phone was a well made phone, although some more buttons would have been nice. When you put a normal launcher on it, and side load google play store, it's pretty good as long as you bought it on sale. I'm not sure that they made any money on it at the fire sale prices, though; but at least they sold them all.
 
It was a marketing disaster. They tried selling it for the same price as whichever Samsung Galaxy S was out at the time, the most popular phone on the market. If they had released the phone with 2-year contract deals it would have been a completely different story. When they finally did, it was too little too late.
 
I had one. Loved it really. Camera was awesome. Bit once I could get Amazon on my Nexus it really wasn't the best for me. Needed Google apps and would have be way more successful in my opinion.
 
The only good thing about the Fire Phone is that it wasn't as bad of a disaster as MS's Nokia purchase.
 
pxc said:
The only good thing about the Fire Phone is that it wasn't as bad of a disaster as MS's Nokia purchase.
Click to expand...
Nokia purchase is still in progress, MS still could turn it around if they can get Continuum mainstreamed. HP's purchase of Palm, now that was a total waste.
 
I'm glad I wasn't the project manager of the FirePhone. Did this person get promoted? If it's a good thing like Bezos said, this person should be high in the ranks of Amazon now. Somehow, I imagine they no longer work there...
Surprised they pulled the plug on it so fast. Having used the Fire Tablet (mainly as an ebook reader, but use the Silk Browser sometimes) - it's not a bad tablet. Factor in the $35 I paid for it, it's pretty amazing.
They should have made a deal for Prime Members. Buy the phone for $100, get ad supported cellular for free (with Prime).
 
steakman1971 said:
I'm glad I wasn't the project manager of the FirePhone. Did this person get promoted? If it's a good thing like Bezos said, this person should be high in the ranks of Amazon now. Somehow, I imagine they no longer work there...
Surprised they pulled the plug on it so fast. Having used the Fire Tablet (mainly as an ebook reader, but use the Silk Browser sometimes) - it's not a bad tablet. Factor in the $35 I paid for it, it's pretty amazing.
They should have made a deal for Prime Members. Buy the phone for $100, get ad supported cellular for free (with Prime).
Click to expand...

Actually....Bezos personally was micromanaging the project from on high

The Real Story Behind Jeff Bezos's Fire Phone Debacle And What It Means For Amazon's Future

"'In essence, we were not building the phone for the customer—we were building it for Jeff,' says one source. With Bezos managing every critical decision, teams began second-guessing themselves trying to anticipate how he would react."
 
the_servicer said:
When looking for a used Fire Phone, how does one ensure it will work well that way? Sounds like a nice alternative to iPod touch.
Click to expand...

As long as you have a Prime account and the Fire Phone connected to a Wi-Fi network, it'll function as such, even if not on an active phone plan with a provider.
 
DejaWiz said:
As long as you have a Prime account and the Fire Phone connected to a Wi-Fi network, it'll function as such, even if not on an active phone plan with a provider.
Click to expand...
For basic web browsing, what if it's an unlocked Fire Phone not hooked to any Amazon account? Do they still push any software updates?
 
the_servicer said:
For basic web browsing, what if it's an unlocked Fire Phone not hooked to any Amazon account? Do they still push any software updates?
Click to expand...

I've never used it without my Prime account tied to it.

I would assume the web browser would function without an Amazon account and any software updates would still be accessible...but not sure. The Google Play store is able to be side-loaded.
 
toast0 said:
The fire phone was a well made phone, although some more buttons would have been nice. When you put a normal launcher on it, and side load google play store, it's pretty good as long as you bought it on sale. I'm not sure that they made any money on it at the fire sale prices, though; but at least they sold them all.
Click to expand...

Yeah, ive had three of them. I bought one awhile back and side loaded apps on it for $160 but google apps always crashed and i gave up. Then they lowered price to $120 with prime, i bought two more. flashed CM11 on it and pretty happy. its a well made phone, but 4.7" screen is to small for me. still it does everything i need well enough im not shopping for a replacement until they die. The FireOS is pretty, but it failed so many times at getting directions, voice commands, swype dictionary. on CM11 it just works, but you lose dynamic perspective, flash photos, use of most camera based apps, video chat. None of which bother me.
 
Tweak42 said:
Nokia purchase is still in progress, MS still could turn it around if they can get Continuum mainstreamed. HP's purchase of Palm, now that was a total waste.
Click to expand...

As someone who used a Palm Pixi back in the day (yes, the name was shit), PalmOS was years ahead of all the other phone OS's in terms of multi-tasking and it's gesture system. I'm sad that it got HP'd.
 
I understand what he's saying, but man, there's a lot better way to say it.
 
Tweak42 said:
Nokia purchase is still in progress, MS still could turn it around if they can get Continuum mainstreamed. HP's purchase of Palm, now that was a total waste.
Click to expand...
wat? MS wrote down $7.6 billion on that turkey last year, cut 7800 jobs from the unit and essentially sold the bulk of its handset business to Foxconn for peanuts. Also: Nokia returns to the phone market as Microsoft sells brand

MS's total crap mobile and mobilized desktop OS have been an unmitigated disaster for the PC market. Good thing Windows lock-in can squeeze more drops of blood from enterprise, or MS would be hurting.
 
pxc said:
wat? MS wrote down $7.6 billion on that turkey last year, cut 7800 jobs from the unit and essentially sold the bulk of its handset business to Foxconn for peanuts. Also: Nokia returns to the phone market as Microsoft sells brand

MS's total crap mobile and mobilized desktop OS have been an unmitigated disaster for the PC market. Good thing Windows lock-in can squeeze more drops of blood from enterprise, or MS would be hurting.
Click to expand...

To be clearer, if and when MS exits the mobile market completely and sells all the patents they pocketed from Nokia, with no profit to show, it would be over. But you are right they sure are headed in the wrong direction, they just haven't sunk into bankruptcy yet.
 
britjh22 said:
As someone who used a Palm Pixi back in the day (yes, the name was shit), PalmOS was years ahead of all the other phone OS's in terms of multi-tasking and it's gesture system. I'm sad that it got HP'd.
Click to expand...

And sadly it still is... R.I.P webOs :(
 
Seriously why doesn't anyone want to talk about the point of the article?
"If you think that's a big failure, we're working on much bigger failures right now. And I am not kidding."!!!!!!
NOT KIDDING!! Who says shit like that? WTF!
 
Tweak42 said:
Nokia purchase is still in progress, MS still could turn it around if they can get Continuum mainstreamed. HP's purchase of Palm, now that was a total waste.
Click to expand...

Does 'turning it around' mean getting up above 1% marketshare? I have a bit more confidence in Amazon eventually reaching success, Microsoft can't do anything right.
 
was it the phone or the fire tablets that had this, but you could hit a button and get a person to video chat with you to figure stuff out: that would have been awesome for my mom who has never used a computer before and given that I am not around all the time (see: at all)
 
Isn't there any forums of "phone lore" for the thread jacking, nothing important to share, simpletons?
WTF? Does Amazon Prime pay for this misdirection????
LOL ;)
DID.......YOU........READ.........WHAT..........HE ...........SAID!!!!
 
This thread has persuaded me that a used Fire Phone is worth a try. Mine should arrive in a few days.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Does 'turning it around' mean getting up above 1% marketshare? I have a bit more confidence in Amazon eventually reaching success, Microsoft can't do anything right.
Click to expand...
No argument about MS failing at execution most of the time. My definition would be sustainable (as in not losing money) whatever the marketshare and not bankrupting the company. That's not including the investment cost to obtain that market share however.
 
funkydmunky said:
Seriously why doesn't anyone want to talk about the point of the article?
"If you think that's a big failure, we're working on much bigger failures right now. And I am not kidding."!!!!!!
NOT KIDDING!! Who says shit like that? WTF!
Click to expand...

funkydmunky said:
Isn't there any forums of "phone lore" for the thread jacking, nothing important to share, simpletons?
WTF? Does Amazon Prime pay for this misdirection????
LOL ;)
DID.......YOU........READ.........WHAT..........HE ...........SAID!!!!
Click to expand...

You never once had a teacher explain to you that you are bound to fail, probably multiple times, on the path to success at anything? He's saying that Amazon has lots of big projects and some of them are bound to fail. That's not crazy or misdirection... that's just how the world works.
 
Failures are more numerous than the stars and they are the reason why we have anything in this world that works.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
You never once had a teacher explain to you that you are bound to fail, probably multiple times, on the path to success at anything? He's saying that Amazon has lots of big projects and some of them are bound to fail. That's not crazy or misdirection... that's just how the world works.
Click to expand...
We all know that. But have you ever heard it put into such stupid language before?
 
Tweak42 said:
To be clearer, if and when MS exits the mobile market completely and sells all the patents they pocketed from Nokia, with no profit to show, it would be over. But you are right they sure are headed in the wrong direction, they just haven't sunk into bankruptcy yet.
Click to expand...
lol Microsoft bangs the final nail in Nokia Devices’ coffin, will lay off 1,850

Company will take one last $950 million hit as a result; is a Surface phone next?

by Peter Bright - May 25, 2016 2:00am PDT

The last remaining vestiges of Nokia at Microsoft are being closed down as the company "streamlines" its smartphone hardware business. "Up to 1,850" people will lose their jobs (1,350 in Finland, 500 elsewhere) as the company essentially exits the phone market.
Click to expand...

Let's back up to the last goal before it was moved. Remember, you said this was just a small issue with Continuum adoption? :p Peter Bright still has his rose tinted glasses on, to go along with his rose colored cornea implants for anything related to MS's recent disasters. Yes Peter, MS just blew $7 billion on an established brand, and destroyed it with a phone OS very few people wanted, so it makes sense that MS will try again. Just like with Windows RT, still going strong.
 
Do you think they would still honor the 1-year warranty and replace it? Or did they run out (though Amazon credit would be fine)?
 
DejaWiz said:
Picked up a GSM unlocked Fire Phone when it was on sale for $160 with a free year of Prime...thing is awesome. Full native access to Amazon's entire library of music, video, books, and store right in my pocket...even when used as a Wi-Fi device without activated phone service (have it on Cricket now). It's a shame it didn't catch on.
Click to expand...

Did the same thing here and loved the phone! Our carrier was Straight Talk and they tried to hose us on a double charging us one month so we dropped them. Then my wife drops her fire phone and shatters it. The cost to repair was more than we paid for the phone so we went with new phones.
I rooted my fire phone and loaded Cyanogen. I keep it in the car mainly as a media player now. ;)
 
the surface is pretty fantastic, a surface phone could be really compelling.
 
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