Is Kindle one of the "consumer devices" that's being curtailed? I thought it was doing well, but if I was thinking of buying one, I'd think twice after reading this article.
Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
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Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is this always the case? I've been on a couple of projects that were complete flops, devs are always first to go. Meanwhile the idiots who actually wasted all the money and bloated the feature set start working on version "2.0".
Yeah, saw the same thing with the good devs at Nike :-/
There were good devs at Nike? When I lived in Portland Nike had a reputation for hiring...ah...those with a bit yet to go on the learning curve, shall we say.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you telling me that Amazon has written off the smartphone business, one of the most quickly adopted pieces of technology since the original PC and which has made Apple one of the most profitable businesses in the world, as an idea not worth pursuing anymore?
That's certainly possible. Is that so hard to believe? The Kindle worked out, the Fire phone didnt. Maybe its just the phone models since they're still working on other devices. They also just became more valuable than Walmart. It seems like they know what they're doing, including cutting losses.
The Kindle worked out only after iteration. It was the same for Apple with the iPod and iPhone as well. Amazon has quit in the first inning because their phone wasn't an overnight success. If they were truly focused on the long-term they wouldn't be afraid to continue to invest in it.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
The entire bull case for AMZN is always "Amazon reinvests all their cash flow into the business" and "Bezos is focused on the long term". Why are they calling it quits already? Because they are investing their cash in the business, not just spending it. Investing means knowing when an investment is doing poorly and not throwing good money after bad.
Are you telling me that Amazon has written off the smartphone business, one of the most quickly adopted pieces of technology since the original PC and which has made Apple one of the most profitable businesses in the world, as an idea not worth pursuing anymore?
Why not? Microsoft is about to.
The game is over. Apple won the money and Android/Google/Samsung/Xiaomi won the market-share.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is this always the case? I've been on a couple of projects that were complete flops, devs are always first to go. Meanwhile the idiots who actually wasted all the money and bloated the feature set start working on version "2.0".
Simple. If you are a designer, you can go work on another project. If you are a BA, you can go work on another project. If you are a manager, you can go work on another project. If you are an mobile developer/hardware engineer, and they aren't building any more OS/hardware, they can't move you onto another project.
Amazon produces mobile apps for other platforms, and is shipping hardware like Alexa.
If anything, these layoffs seem to correllate with some of the commentary in the recent NYT article about Amazon.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#96I 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…
I think it really did have some really smart features -- the instant free on-phone tech support is brilliant -- but it was poorly marketed. I think it could have worked if they pitched it to first-time smartphone owners rather than tacking on a bunch of random things to attract the early adopter crowd.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#97Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems not quite different from what Jobs did. The real difference is the degree of vision associated with reality.
Except that Jobs knew what customers would need, and Besos doesn't have a clue, he builds what mini me would want.
That whole amazon.com thing certainly has filled a need of mine on countless occasions
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
Truly going big would have been to build two phones- keep the Fire as high end, then build a cheaper version for the low/mid range. That way there is no ambiguity.
Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
#100I don't get it why would they fire the team? Can they not be absorbed into other groups? Such a growing company like Amazon definitely needs more people right?