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Fire Phone Flop Blamed for Layoffs and Reorganization at Amazon

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

Phoenix666 writes:

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, @08:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2015, @08:07PM (#229158)

    They used to be good, now crappy shipping times (still waiting for an order from 6 days ago to ship), damaged shipments (one box with a case of cambells soup, a bottle of liquid soap, and a wacom pad, all soaked because the bottle broke), selling a used laptop as new (who the fuck is bruce?), and false advertising (ad shows kindle surviving a tumble down the stairs, but mine broke falling 3 feet onto carpet). Then there's the convoluted rating system that makes crappy rated items have 4+ stars, and negative feedback suppressed.

  • (Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday August 29 2015, @12:44AM

    by Francis (5544) on Saturday August 29 2015, @12:44AM (#229265)

    Depends where you live. If you're using the ultra-cheep shipping, you should realize that it doesn't ship until the container is full. So, that could take a while. Personally, I ordered something extremely early on Thursday and it arrived today. I'm in Seattle, so I often times get same day delivery.