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Are you telling me that Amazon has written off the smartphone business, one of the most quickly adopted pieces of technology since the original PC and which has
by IBM 11y ago
Are you telling me that Amazon has written off the smartphone business, one of the most quickly adopted pieces of technology since the original PC and which has made Apple one of the most profitable businesses in the world, as an idea not worth pursuing anymore?
- manigandham 11y agoThat's certainly possible. Is that so hard to believe? The Kindle worked out, the Fire phone didnt. Maybe its just the phone models since they're still working on other devices. They also just became more valuable than Walmart. It seems like they know what they're doing, including cutting losses.
- IBM 11y agoThe Kindle worked out only after iteration. It was the same for Apple with the iPod and iPhone as well. Amazon has quit in the first inning because their phone wasn't an overnight success. If they were truly focused on the long-term they wouldn't be afraid to continue to invest in it.
- Crito 11y agoKindle worked out right out of the gate. They dramatically underestimated the demand for the first Kindle. Certainly that first iteration looks like shit compared to modern iterations, but why would you expect otherwise? Arguably Bezos' unlikely success with Kindle made people give him the benefit of the doubt when they should not have. That was my take away anyway, from when I was working on Fire Phone (I left my team because of that project, and my experiences with it greatly contributed to my decision to leave the company).
- Eric_WVGG 11y agoWhy not? Microsoft is about to. The game is over. Apple won the money and Android/Google/Samsung/Xiaomi won the market-share.
- CamperBob2 11y agoThinking back to the dawn of the (post-IBM) PC era, an awful lot of companies went under trying to win a race to the bottom against IBM and Apple. Companies that refuse to indulge in "me, too" behavior in the smartphone era are probably making the right call.