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?
(Score: 2) by efitton on Saturday August 29 2015, @05:26AM
Not sure I understand. I've bought "kindle" books and read them on both an Apple device and a LG device. I've installed apps from the "amazon play store" onto the LG phone. I don't love amazon but you can by their "stuff" and use it on non-kindle devices.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday August 29 2015, @04:00PM
You're still using their software. You can't load the books on anything that Amazon hasn't blessed. My Nook will never get to use the Kindles store because it hasn't been blessed. The only way I can load books from Amazon on my Nook is to break the DRM and convert it to an epub.
I'm not really sure what's so confusing about this. You're not loading files onto an Apple or LG device, you're loading it into their app. Which probably allows you to use books from other stores. Even under the best case scenario, you still need to have another ebook app.
(Score: 2) by efitton on Sunday August 30 2015, @11:26PM
It is less than ideal, and yes, I am using their software. However, I am certainly able to get my content on any Android or Apple device. Although I haven't looked at other e-ink readers.