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Under the Apple Hype Machine, Amazon Drops Fire Phone Price To 99 Cents

Whatever it is that Apple's going to announce a few hours from now, it seems Amazon has decided it's probably not going to send people rushing to buy its Fire phone. Amazon's cut the price of the phone from $199 to 99 cents. At that price, the Fire phone comes with free Amazon Prime membership, too -- but also a 2-year contract with (exclusive carrier) AT&T. Writes ExtremeTech: Whether that’s going to be enough to stimulate sales is an open question — $450 unlocked is still a tough sell for a device that is overmatched by products like the cheaper Nexus 5, or the recently unveiled $500 second-gen Moto X. In August, adoption data from advertising agency Chitika claimed that total Amazon Fire Phone sales were paltry, representing just 0.015-0.02% of phones in use, or fewer than 30,000 phones. That number will have doubtlessly ticked up slightly since then, and it’s true that Amazon’s partners, like AT&T, have aggressively pushed the phone in online stores.

4 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. It's a Fire Sale by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone had to say it.

  2. It's not apple this time! by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They failed on their own merits.

    I doubt the Bigass iPhone thing today's the reason why they tipped on this.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  3. Spoon by Naatach · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's only so much you can get for a spoon that only works in the Amazon bowl.

    --
    There may be no "I" in team, but there's also no "F" in way.
  4. Fire = Zune by globaljustin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Amazon is a victim of their own hubris, not Apple.

    Only an idiot or egomaniac would think that Amazon could compete with that product...that phone...it had too many dumb bells and whistles (3D screen! ooh shiny!) but all the important details were wrong.

    Amazon lost out to a better designed, better marketed, more established, funner to use product...just like M$ did with Zune

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett