Why is Fire Phone so hasty?

Why is Fire Phone so hasty?

Mediocre design, useless functions, lack of ecosystem, coupled with a high-end price ...... Amazon's Fire mobile phone has been doomed to a tragic fate since its launch. As a result, Lab126, the hardware department of Amazon, will also make large-scale adjustments. It is said that many executives in the department have left the company.

The Fire mobile phone is a failed exploration and a confusing puzzle. When talking about Amazon, we always think of efficiency and low prices. From Kindle, Kindle Fire, to Fire TV, Fire TV Stick. Amazon's hardware products always get the market at a low price and then make a profit from content sales. As a result, the Kindle Fire is still available in the Android tablet market, despite its lack of popularity. Why did Amazon suddenly change the style of work when it came to the Fire mobile phone and want to take the high-end route? From a long article published on the Fastcompany website, we can learn some details about the development of the Fire mobile phone.

According to people inside Amazon, the Fire mobile phone is an ambitious plan. In 2010, Amazon started a mobile project named "Tyto. There is a reason why Amazon uses mobile phones. With the advent of the mobile age, Amazon needs to establish more direct contact with users. Bezos knows that in the highly competitive mobile phone market, Amazon's mobile phones must have their own characteristics to stimulate users' desire to buy. Therefore, his requirement on the development team is that users must be amazed by the features.

Bezos participated in the development of the Fire mobile phone. If Amazon's services always start from customers, then the Fire mobile client is Bezos. He envisaged a series of important functions, and then the development team began to experiment with a variety of advanced technologies, such as NFC for non-contact payments and air gesture control interfaces. The most attractive feature is "Dynamic View ". By tracking users' headers through cameras, images on mobile phones can achieve 3D effects.

Bezos became the "super product manager" of the Fire mobile phone ". Even the smallest decision goes through him. The Fire mobile phone uses a 13 million pixel camera, which is the decision of Bezos. He discussed hardware issues with the industrial design team and the UI design team about the font size and interaction details. Some designers like this method, while others become frustrated and start to privately question the taste of Bezos. "We don't make a cell phone for consumers, we make a cell phone For Bezos," someone said.

The "dynamic perspective" has become a feature that Bezos attaches great importance. He said that this function must be made no matter how much time and money it takes. In the view of the development team, Bezos seems to be looking for the biggest highlight of the Fire mobile phone. The problem is that the development team does not know the significance of this function. "During the meeting, Bezos was always talking about '3d, 3D, 3D! '. He has a child enthusiasm for this function. No one can understand the reason, "said one engineer who participated in dynamic development." The money we spent on it cannot win, but we all think it is of no value to consumers. This is the greatest irony. When people ask us why we want to do this thing. The answer is always 'bezos wants it '. No one thinks this feature is worth so much money. No one. Absolutely no one ."

Even so, the development team is very respectful to Bezos. This is because Bezos has had a great risk and achieved great success. "Yes, there was a heated debate on whether the mobile phone development direction was correct. But you always think, 'Okay. This guy was always correct. '"Said one engineer.

Mobile phone development is slow. In 2013, the company decided to start from scratch and postpone the release date by one year. At the same time, the company has developed a backup plan to consider producing a low-price mobile phone. However, Bezos prefers high-end smartphones. He wants to reposition Amazon to become a fashion brand like apple. This is a wrong decision. "We cannot compete directly with apple," one of Lab126's top executives said. "This is a brand problem: Apple is a high-end product, and our customers want inexpensive products ."

Recently, in an interview, Bezos defended the Fire mobile phone. He said that this is a bold exploration and it may take many attempts to succeed. This is Bezos's "long-term benefit" argument, but he may no longer be able to convince people. For a long time, people have always believed that Amazon's expansion speed is too fast to make profits. However, as the company's growth slows down, the profit still does not come in third quarter of 2014, and Amazon's net loss of $0.437 billion), investors' "Faith" in Amazon is shaking. The failure of the Fire mobile phone may expose some problems in Amazon.