All those who paid over the odds for an Amazon smartphone will probably be gathering together their pitchforks and torches for a lynching.
When Amazon released its Fire smartphone, analysts wondered what it was playing at. Amazon’s Fire tablets had done rather well because they were subsidised, but the bookseller had put out a smartphone which was not only unsubsidised but also rather expensive.
As a product the phone was not that bad. It had a dynamic perspective screen that gives it a 3D look. It also has a new feature, Firefly, that lets users capture in physical objects, text and tag content from TV or radio, with the press of a button.
You could find better on the market for the sort of price that Amazon wanted for it. It appears that after a few weeks, no one wanted to buy one.
Now six weeks after hitting the market, Amazon is slashing the price of its Fire Phone to just 99 cents with a two-year contract.
For 99 cents, the Fire Phone will come with unlimited cloud storage for photos as well as a free year of Amazon Prime. The Fire Phone comes with 32GB of storage, so the new, lower cost is a pretty good deal.
The Fire Phone is only available on AT&T in the United States; the 99 cent offer is available both on Amazon.com and AT&T’s website as well as in AT&T stores.
A price drop this soon is not an encouraging sign that the Fire Phone is doing well and it is not clear if there will be any form of subsidy when the Fire hits the UK later.
