Next Version of Amazon Fire Phone Will Not Release in 2015
Amazon is not yet ready to give up on its megaflop Amazon Fire Phone. The company has been pushing regular updates and now reports suggests that a next version of it will be announced in 2016.
According to a report published on VentureBeat, the company has "gone back to the drawing board" and is trying to completely reiterate the Fire phone in the next version. The company is exploring features that would make the next version of Fire phone a success.
The ill-fated Fire phone had a horrendous start as it received rave reviews. Experts called it just another 'shopping device,' from Amazon. Part of its failure can also be contributed to its high launching price. The AT&T exclusive launched at the standard $199 for the 32GB model and $299 for 64GB on contract. However, few months later, Amazon had to drop the price to 99 cents.
An off-contract 32GB Amazon Fire phone was priced at $649, which was later reduced to $449. The price drop was hardly helpful in driving more sales of the phone.
Recently Amazon released a major software update for the Fire phones that brings features such as artwork-recognition and ability to translate text from one language to another. "We are going to keep iterating software features to get it better and better," Senior Vice President of Devices, David Limp, told Fortune. "Each release that we're doing, we're leaning. Beyond that, I leave it out there to see what people think."
However, despite numerous effort, e-commerce giant is failing. Amazon lost $170 million in the last quarter, and was left with an $83 million surplus in unsold phones, PCMag reported.
