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posted by cmn32480 on Friday August 28 2015, @05:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-happened-to-just-selling-books-online dept.

Amazon is laying off "dozens" of employees at Lab126, the hardware-development center in Silicon Valley responsible for products like the Fire Phone, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Sources at Amazon "familiar with the matter" told the WSJ that the company has scaled back or halted numerous development projects, including a large-screen tablet and a smart stylus.

The WSJ's sources claim that the layoffs form part of a broad reorganisation at Lab126, which began last year after disappointing sales of the Fire Phone. This resulted in Lab126 combining its tablet, e-reader, and phone projects. In October 2014, it emerged that Amazon was sitting on over $83 million (~£54 million) of unsold Fire phones, which the company swiftly tried to shift by offering a substantial price drop.

It's not yet clear whether Amazon will continue its in-house smartphone development. Some engineers at Lab126 told the WSJ that development would be shelved, while another claimed it had been shifted to Seattle under Steve Kessel, an executive who helped spearhead the company's hardware unit and oversaw digital media like e-books and music.

Has Amazon bitten off more than it can chew with mobile devices?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2015, @06:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2015, @06:37PM (#229112)

    Amazon has trolled me for years (mostly via LinkedIn), wanting me to come to hiring fairs in random cities at my own expense and beg their outsourced recruiting drones to let me have a chance to beg them for a job.

    Same here. I couldn't believe anyone would have the brass to ask prospective employees to do that. Even Google will do a phone screen or three before flying you out (at their expense) for an onsite.

    In light of all the recent revelations about that company, though, it probably fits in well with Amazon's unique sociopathic vibe.