The Amazon Fire Phone is now out of stock and it's not coming back, seeing its demise after roughly one year of disappointing sales.
Amazon launched its Fire Phone will all bells and whistles, aiming to race in the highly competitive smartphone market, but it never really saw much success on this front. While the company's tablets attracted plenty of customers and continue to enjoy popularity, its first smartphone proved to be a flop.
The Fire Phone's success was questionable from the very beginning, as it made its debut at a steep price point for a newcomer. As a reminder, Amazon launched its Fire Phone at $649 unlocked, a price point usually reserved for top-notch flagships in established lineups.
It didn't take too long for Amazon to realize that a high price was not helping sales, so the company shaved the Fire Phone's price to $189 unlocked. At the same time, the smartphone also dropped its price from $199 to just $0.99 on a two-year contract with AT&T, marking another massive discount.
Despite these heavy price cuts, however, the Amazon Fire Phone continued to see disappointing sales, and it became increasingly clear that it was a failure. Amazon now seems ready to give up on its smartphone dreams, at least for the time being.
Both the 32GB and 64GB versions of the Amazon Fire Phone have apparently run out of stock, currently appearing as unavailable on the company's website.
"We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock," Amazon noted on the product page.
Although the company has not issued an official press release to announce its plans in this regard, it did confirm to MarketWatch that it decided to discontinue the Fire Phone.
"The Seattle-based online retailing giant has depleted its inventory and has no plans to offer more of the smartphone, an Amazon spokeswoman told MarketWatch in an emailed response. She said Amazon wouldn't replenish its stock of smartphones but would 'continue to support its customers using [the] Fire Phone,'" MarketWatch reported.
This means that Amazon is exiting the phone business at least for now, but it will still remain in the hardware business. The company will likely focus its efforts on the tablet front, planning to launch affordable slates that would boost its tablet sales.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) revealed earlier this week that Amazon plans to launch a $50 tablet with a 6-inch display this year, in time for the lucrative holiday shopping season. The WSJ further noted that other tablets with 8-inch and 10-inch displays would also be part of Amazon's upcoming tablet lineup.
