Amazon announced that customers may now avail themselves of the 32-GB version of the company's Fire Phone for only 99 cents on a two-year contract. The new price is a massive discount on the previous rate of $199.
The price cuts come less than two months after the Fire Phone was released to the public, which could draw the ire of loyal Amazon users who have already snapped up the smartphone.
The almost-free 32-GB Fire Phone will also come with a year's worth of Prime, which allows users access to the streaming Prime Instant Video and Prime Music collections, lets them borrow from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for half a million e-books, and gets them free two-day shipping on purchased products.
A one-year availment of Amazon Prime generally costs $99.
"With access to all of the Prime content, Mayday, 32 GB of memory and free, unlimited cloud storage for photos, plus the exclusive Dynamic Perspective and Firefly features, Fire is another example of the value Amazon delivers to customers," said Amazon Devices Vice President Ian Freed.
The 64-GB version of the Fire Phone also received a drastic price cut, from $300 on a two-year contract previously to only $100.
The new prices for the Fire Phone, which users can only obtain through a two-year contract with AT&T in the United States, may mean that Amazon is not hitting the expected sales targets for the device. The massive price cuts on the smartphone may be what Amazon needs for the Fire Phone to remain in the mix amid competition from Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy devices.
The price cuts also come the day before Apple's media event, where the company is poised to unveil its much-anticipated iPhone 6.
Releasing such a massive price cut for the Fire Phone could entice customers to try out the smartphone, along with the entire Amazon ecosystem that is featured prominently in the smartphone's design.
The Fire Phone features a 4.5-inch HD screen and is powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor. It includes two cameras, with a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera and a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera packed with features such as optical image stabilization and high dynamic range. Pictures taken with the cameras of the Fire Phone are eligible to receive free and unlimited cloud storage from Amazon.
The Fire Phone also has two unique features developed by Amazon, namely Dynamic Perspective and Firefly.
Dynamic Perspective is a feature that provides users with a 3D effect that follows the tilting of the device and the user's perspective, utilizing the Fire Phone's four front-facing cameras that follow the user's eye movement.
Firefly, on the other hand, is a feature that identifies the bar codes of products or images of the products themselves, then links to the product's page on the Amazon store if it can be purchased there.
