Chat With Austin Carr About His February Feature: The Real Story Behind Jeff Bezos's Fire Phone Debacle And What It Means For Amazon's Future
Join Austin Carr and Noah Robischon as they discuss the real story behind Jeff Bezos's Fire phone debacle--and what it means for Amazon's future. This event will begin at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, January 13th, but you can start submitting your questions now!
In June, after roughly four years of development, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the Fire Phone, arguably the most high-profile product launch in his company’s history. Bezos had personally overseen the intense effort, and on stage at an Amazon event, he heralded the device’s industrial design and novel 3-D Dynamic Perspective features.
But despite the hype and anticipation, Amazon’s phone became one of the biggest flops of 2014, after customers and critics widely panned the product. The Fire Phone’s price has since been cut to just 99 cents (with contract), and Amazon has taken a $170 million write-down largely related to unsold inventory.
The blunder shines a light not just on Amazon’s ups and downs in the consumer electronics space, but also on its struggles to unearth its next gusher of revenue as the growth of its retail business finally begins to slow. The secretive R&D group behind the phone, Amazon’s Lab126, has launched a slew of promising products—Fire TV, Echo, Dash—in addition to its popular Kindle line of tablets and e-readers.
Read The Feature Now: "The Real Story Behind Jeff Bezos's Fire Phone Debacle And What It Means For Amazon's Future"
Join Austin Carr and Noah Robischon at 1 p.m. ET today for a discussion on what’s next for Amazon as it drives more and more into competition with Apple and Google. Have any questions or comments? Start submitting them now!
