This place should be called Amazon News.
Why?
It should be called "Amazon Bad News"
Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
71–80 of 135 posts
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#72Is this true for all products or just phone and tablets? I was actually intrigued by the echo and dash, even if I think they should be open and not tied to one company or use.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#73> Still in the works is a high-end computer for the kitchen—code-named Kabinet—designed to serve as a hub for an Internet-connected home and capable of taking voice commands for tasks like ordering merchandise from Amazon.com. Will this be a competitor to the Google router?
> a high-end computer for the kitchen
It's Honeywell all over again!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywell_316#Kitchen_Computer
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly I'd take a cheap phone with no Amazon customizations. I don't think you can ship an Android phone with Google Apps and not with the Play Store though, and I can't imagine Amazon would want that since they have their own Market to promote. On the other hand, it wasn't like the phone was originally cheap; if anything it was priced like a high end phone. That being the case, perhaps they got too greedy. When I…
>reason was so that people would think it's high end, and not dismiss it as a low/mid range phone. Wow, that is whole another level of disconnect with reality!
Hardly. The adage 'You get what you pay for' has been proven to have real consequences. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2006/january18/shiv-011806.htm...
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems not quite different from what Jobs did. The real difference is the degree of vision associated with reality.
Steve obsessed over details that would benefit users; Bezos apparently forced choices that would benefit Amazon. Seems quite a bit different.
From that angle, it's the difference between a true product maker and a retailer. They have different visions, one is more user-centered and another is more oneself-organization-value-chain-centered. Unfortunately, most of people with huge capital leverage capability are not true product makers and most of true product makers do not have that capability. Jobs happened to be the one that had both. I wish he had lived till 100. Apple without Jobs seems to come out with new products by levering existing products' values or somewhat network effect in products and OS eco, not the other way around.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly I'd take a cheap phone with no Amazon customizations. I don't think you can ship an Android phone with Google Apps and not with the Play Store though, and I can't imagine Amazon would want that since they have their own Market to promote. On the other hand, it wasn't like the phone was originally cheap; if anything it was priced like a high end phone. That being the case, perhaps they got too greedy. When I…
>reason was so that people would think it's high end, and not dismiss it as a low/mid range phone. Wow, that is whole another level of disconnect with reality!
Making a low/mid range would have been just as bad of an idea. That range is way lower margin and the established players are way better at it.
They had to go big or go home. They really should have gone home though.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#77I flew up in First Class on Virgin to Seattle next to a key lead on the fire phone. We had a nice long talk about the project and what happened. He vehemently defended the Fire Phone and touted its great and unique aspects while I examined it and admired the hard work he put in. 3D modeling, gyroscopic-driven interactions, an universal activity feed -- some interesting stuff was there... But there were some serious p…
Perhaps it would be wise to remove his specific job working on the Fire phone? Wouldn't want him to get in trouble at work for comments like that, even if it was ill advised to say them to a stranger on a flight.
He didn't put a specific job. Key lead could be anything in engineering or product management.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#78My Amazon Fire TV Stick is quite nice: fairly snappy, very usable interface, downloadable apps, almost-perfect minimalist remote control. (One flaw: the 'home' button is too easy to hit by mistake.) Better in most respects than the Google ChromeCast.
I hope Fire TV products survive and thrive through this reorg.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the end, this comes down to a question of ends justifying the means. I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that the company has done very well in many ways. So has Apple. We've learned that both Jobs and Bezos weren't/aren't very good people to work for. Maybe it's naive of me to think this way, but I'd like to think that companies can be wildly successful without being life sucking and horrible in the proc…
No first hand experience, but I've heard/read this many times that Bezos, Jobs, Gates, Ellison etc aren't good people to work for. Are there any bosses of mega corporations that are good to work for?
You don't hear about this crap from higher ups at Google. Same for current Microsoft leadership for that matter.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the end, this comes down to a question of ends justifying the means. I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that the company has done very well in many ways. So has Apple. We've learned that both Jobs and Bezos weren't/aren't very good people to work for. Maybe it's naive of me to think this way, but I'd like to think that companies can be wildly successful without being life sucking and horrible in the proc…
No first hand experience, but I've heard/read this many times that Bezos, Jobs, Gates, Ellison etc aren't good people to work for. Are there any bosses of mega corporations that are good to work for?
Everyone who works for Larry Page (and Sundar) seems to be very happy still.