“In my article titled “The Hail Mary Phone”, I had already explained how Amazon.com’s incoming Fire Phone was very likely to flop. This was so because buying that phone required deep ignorance of what the smartphone market is providing, both in terms of choice and pricing,” Paulo Santos writes for Seeking Alpha. “Additionally, the phone had weak mid-tier specifications and yet was priced at the same levels as Apple’s and Samsung’s flagships. At the time, however, the phone was not yet physically available, so it flopping in terms of pre-orders was not the be all and end all for this argument.”
“The phone has been available for delivery since July 25. This means that Amazon.com has started taking reviews on the phone, and its best sellers’ list now reflects sales instead of just orders. And what has happened? Right at availability time, the phone climbed to 20th or so on that list, which would already be bad,” Santos writes. “This was helped both by Amazon.com advertising and widespread (if unfavorable) reviews. Ever since, however, the same thing happened as with pre-orders. It started tanking and then tanking some more. It now floats in the lowly 60s-100s in the best sellers’ list in electronics.”
“At these levels, we know the selling is a trickle,” Santos writes. “The phone will be lucky to sell 100-200k units over a year, which should be enough to turn it into another unprofitable boondoggle.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is what happens when you create a product designed to benefit your business interests instead of designed to delight your customers.
Related articles:
Amazon’s Misfire phone could be 2014’s most epic flop – August 6, 2014
Amazon’s Misfire Phone: Why the Fire Phone will fail – July 30, 2014
Wall Street’s patience with Amazon’s losses wears thin – July 29, 2014
The Wall Street Journal reviews Amazon Fire Phone: A gimmicky mess – July 25, 2014
Gizmodo reviews Amazon’s Fire Phone: Don’t buy it – July 23, 2014
Why you shouldn’t buy Amazon’s Fire Phone – June 22, 2014
Amazon Fire Phone could add 55% to users’ shopping bills – June 20, 2014
Amazon’s Misfire Phone: How Jeff Bezos failed – June 19, 2014
Amazon’s Fire Phone might be the biggest privacy invasion ever – June 19, 2014
Analyst: No impact to Apple iPhone from Amazon ‘Fire Phone’ – June 19, 2014
Amazon launches shopping machine masquerading as a phone – June 18, 2014
Amazon Fire Phone’s Firefly feature: Apple’s iPhone already has it – June 18, 2014
Amazon shows ‘Fire Phone’ with 4.7-inch 3-D display to court mobile shoppers – June 18, 2014
Analyst: Amazon smartphone no threat to Apple’s iPhone, but Android phone makers beware – June 17, 2014
“BoonGoogle”
AmaZune
You can some of the people all of the time.:)
…and I call these people idiots!
I’m sure there’s some job those people could do, no need to can them all of the time. 😛
Heads will roll at Lab 126
More like kneecaps, cause that’s as high as the little man can reach.
One cannot begin to explain the non-logical reasoning behind Wall Street’s hypocrisy and protection of Amazon both as a company and as a stock. There is no Finance 101 course that teaches when a company is unable to to show a profit consecutively quarter after quarter, they should be priced and evaluated in the $300 range. Amazon is the poster child of corporate failure and greed (lack of disclosing sales of any product ever made, lack of disclosing facts during quarterly earnings) and yet, Wall Street continues to make a pathetic case on their behalf that one day they will show a profit.
Try to picture for one second if Apple failed to disclose their quarterly sales or might I say missed their quarterly results. In truth and reality, Amazon should not be priced any higher than Microsoft.
It’s greed. Wall Street loves a company that can dominate it’s industry with enough of a moat to achieve a near monopoly. That’s why they love Google and Amazon and hate Apple. Google and Amazon are both chasing monopoly status, while Apple doesn’t covet market share they covet profit share.
Apple is the pure capitalists play, to earn the most money. But Wall Street wants monopolies and the stability in earnings that those who achieve monopolies can generate. Sad state of affairs.
“moat to achieve a near monopoly”
problem is amazon doesn’t have a monopoly in most areas , not even close.
In Canada, Chapters Indigo bookstore matches Amazon.ca prices and shipping and has more Canadian books.
Walmart (which is much larger company than Amazon in market cap, revenue and profits) is providing free shipping for online orders now. Every big retailer has online stores.
Every consumer tech company from Samsung to Apple is competing with it in tablets, phones etc.
Instead of being a monopoly Amazon is competing with every retailer in the world.
Amazon as a stock is myth, a ponzi scheme pushed on to a silly high P.E by cheerleaders and manipulators in Wallstreet and master hustler Bezos (who probably makes more money from the stock than selling stuff).
I’m not sure what “$300 range” is supposed to mean, since stock price is a totally arbitrary number (which is why the most valuated company in the world, Apple, is $96 per share, No. 3 Google is some $570, and No. 6, Berkshire-Hathaway is about $200,000). What separates AMZN from most other mainstream stocks is its ridiculously absurd P/E of over 800 (AAPL is around 15, in the same neighbourhood as the other big companies).
I find it amazing that the numbers are are in the 6 digits, are there really that many people that get stuff from Amazon that often that they would want a Phone that does little else than that..
The Fire Phone is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Why on earth would someone buy that for the same price as an iPhone 5s, let alone the earth shattering iPhone 6 that nears its triumphant release? Hell I’ll take the 5c over it. In fact give me an iPhone 4S before you hand me a Fire Phone.
I do look forward to buying the next Kindle Paperwhite, however. Stick to your bread and butter, Bezos.
I was intrigued by the PaperWhite when it was announced, but couldn’t get past my distaste for the Kindle’s UI, something I experienced when I bought the first Kindle and sold as soon as it appeared that the iPad was on the horizon. I love the idea of being able to read in full sun on an eBook reader. Can you tell me whether the UI on the PaperWhite has improved at all over that first iteration?
I can’t say for sure as I’m unfamiliar with the 1stGen UI. I didn’t buy my first one until the “Kindle Keyboard” a couple generations back, when it actually became a decent device (IMO). Since it’s a touchscreen now I’d imagine it’s quite a bit different though I can’t say whether the changes are for better or worse.
For reading outdoors, however, nothing beats an eReader. I’d go to Best Buy or Staples and try one out, see if you like it. Then buy one. You’ve got 30 days to return it, after all.
Thanks for your response. I’m not sure I would buy it if I liked it. I think it’s great as an e-reader, but I’m not very much in Amazon’s camp when it comes to the way they’re dealing with Hatchett, et.al., otherwise, I would go check it out.
The Hatchett dispute is infuriating. I’d love nothing more than to chuck my Kindle in the trash after seeing Bezos attempt to bully those authors into submission. But when it comes down to it, the Kindle ecosystem is unmatched. The only company that could pry me away is Apple and it will unfortunately be a cold day in hell before you see Jony Ive make a sunshine-friendly e-ink eReader, so I’m stuck.
Up next: The AOL Phone. All data uploaded via CD.
“You’ve Got Phone!!”
Or in Jeff Bezos Fart Fone terms “You’ve got FAIL!”
But those commercials with the two annoying kids! That’s not working? And they throw in a full year of discount shipping and Amazon’s also-ran video streaming service! C’mon, this phone should be selling like hotcakes!
——RM
Time for a Fire Sale…
No one told wall street it flopped. Amazon closes green practically everyday and still sports a +/- 500 PE. If Apple flopped the stock would be at $40 faster than you can say OBammaloveswatermelon. Thats the difference between Bezos and Cook.