Fire Phone -- DOA (As predicted)

Before we dive into the review, let's examine some compelling facts --

• Amazon just posted a $128 million dollar loss on 20billion gross revenue
• Amazon admitted to a serious decline in revenue from their web services
• Amazon predicts that next quarter will be even more brutal with the potential for an $800 million deficit

With those facts in mind, let's take a look at some of the highlights for the phone's reviews --

• "Great for Amazon, less for you." - Gizmodo
• "In the Fire Phone, Amazon has built a really nice, solid, plain white house. You’ll love living in it, if you can ignore all the purple [the unique features that differentiate it]." - NYT
• "But I consider the Amazon Fire phone no more than an interesting first step. In my tests, I found its big new features less useful than I expected, and sometimes outright frustrating. And, arriving seven years after the debut of the first modern smartphone, Amazon’s new entry lacks some key functions both Apple and Samsung include." - re/code
• "The phone handset business is in need of new ideas, so I'm actually rooting for Amazon to make inroads that might disrupt the giants. But Amazon's first Fire isn't going to spark much" - WSJ
• "Between iOS, Android, and Windows Phone (to say nothing of niche players like BlackBerry and Firefox OS or in-development efforts like Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, and Tizen), most smartphone buyers' needs are already being met. There are much safer ways to spend $650." - Arstechnica
• "Amazon’s consumption-first approach works on tablets, for watching and reading and shopping. But tablets are for fun. Smartphones are for work, for life. They’re not toys, they’re tools. Amazon doesn’t understand that, and the Fire Phone doesn’t reflect it. Amazon’s first smartphone is a series of interesting ideas in a package that is somehow much less than the sum of its parts." - The Verge

Woof. The opposite of universal praise. Pretty weak first entry, and consumers are going to be far less forgiving this day and age. It seems to sum up reviews, one could say that the Fire phone introduces new gimmicks, struggles with old problems (battery life!!!), and generally acts like any other android-powered device.

Only in this instance, instead of creating a portal through which Google can advertise to you, Amazon has created a portal by which you will be more inclined to spend money at Amazon. DOA.

Well at least they tried, but for now I want them to make apps for Windows Phone now

What was it I said about the phone being DOA?

Amazon’s Fire Phone looks like 2014’s most epic flop

When you look at the facts, it's not hard to see why. I would have scrapped all efforts to make a phone if I had any say at Amazon.

Did anyone really expect anything else? Here's their problems. 1) released at the exact same price point as every other phone on the market. Why get a 1st gen. device from amazon when you can get a 3rd 4th or even 5th gen device from their competitors at exactly the same cost? (and with a familiar OS). 2) Only released on AT&T. Why would you segregate over 200 million potential customers by only going after the AT&T customers. After you take away iphone and android users who likely won't upgrade and all post-paid and cheap phone users you are left with very few people left to purchase your device. Amazon set themselves up for failure.