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Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

nytimes.com

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Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#41

Post by rdl »

pinkyand wrote: post #39
TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #33

Kindle is Amazon's best consumer brand. I don't know why they made a Fire phone. They should have made a Kindle phone, and positioned it as the phone for "Readers". Positioning matters the most, of course, but I think they could have actually put in some features designed specifically for reading on a smaller screen: 1) scroll wheel that you can use with your thumb to easily flip or scroll through windows of content,…

They are mainly interested in the phone as sales devices. To sell stuff you need color.

Making the phone something people genuinely want, first, then adding features to support sales, would probably better accomplish that.

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#42

Post by rdl »

tmuir wrote: post #37
largote wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may seem weird in Silicon Valley, but even in the US, a lot of people don't have $200 to pay for a phone.

Sure, there will always be some people who can afford a $200 phone, and others that can't. But for those who can, I'm amazed at how much emphasis is placed on the upfront cost of the phone itself, versus the total cost over the 2 years of a normal contract. Lets just pick easy numbers and say your monthly bill is $100, which is probably on the low end, but it still illustrates my point. Over two years, you're going t…

Part of the reason these people don't have $200 to pay for a phone is because they don't think about lifecycle costs of purchases in general.

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#43

Post by snogglethorpe »

largote wrote: post #27
pitnips wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they probably don't have enough money for a subscription service, and if they do, they're better off with a non-smart (dumb?) phone.

There are some subscription services that are quite affordable and not having a cell phone in the modern world is not really an option.

> not having a cell phone in the modern world is not really an option

Er, what? Less convenient to be sure, but not having a cell phone is fine...

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#44

Post by catshirt »

gohrt wrote: post #10
catshirt wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dang has commented on this recently and suggested there are new algorithms to boost "repeat" articles that didn't get traction the first time. the intent is to make sure quality articles get to the front page, even if they're ignored the first time. or something like that.

An article with a blatantly false headline oughtn't be the target of such boosting algorithms...

is the headline false? or is it a negligent reader who doesn't assume "with a contract" was implicit? equal parts both as I see it. don't throw stones in a glass house, so they say.

anyway, the title of the article Is irrelevant with respect to my explanation. and it should be. determining how misleading a title is would be the job for another algorithm.

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#45

Post by uptown »

largote wrote: post #12
badusername wrote: post #8

It's interesting how the dynamics work these days, and how Amazon just doesn't seem to be getting it. People are perfectly happy to sign a 2-year contract on a well-designed fully-rounded functional phone, they do that by the tens of millions. They even pay $200 to get the phone. The phone has become personal, and also a necessity as you go through the day. Going through 2 years on a badly designed phone just because…

This may seem weird in Silicon Valley, but even in the US, a lot of people don't have $200 to pay for a phone.

Since Amazon is positioning this phone as a conduit from which to sell additional products from Amazon, they probably don't want consumers that can't afford the $200 phone.

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#46

Post by ntsb »

bruceb wrote: post #17

Not sure why this phone wasn't $399 off contract in the first place. Amazon is repeating HP mistake of thinking they have product that is the same level as Apple and pricing it the same. The Touchpad was released at $499 the same as the Ipad 2 at the time. For a company that is well known to have thin margins were they thinking $649 is something people were going to pay? Get the phone out with a lot of people using i…

Amazon's phone is not about competing with the iPhone, and the $0.99 price is not about it failing. Amazon's end-game is the ecosystem, which now gives free Prime with the phone among a lot of other benefits that appeals to a lot of people. This price drop is about enticing more people into the ecosystem, from which Amazon will profit off of maybe 10 years from now (they are in it for the extreme long term). The phone is not about selling phones, it's about selling other Amazon products and services. Even if they only capture 1/2 a percentage of the market, that is a lot of new customers locked into the ecosystem.

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#47

Post by ntsb »

rdl wrote: post #41
pinkyand wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are mainly interested in the phone as sales devices. To sell stuff you need color.

Making the phone something people genuinely want, first, then adding features to support sales, would probably better accomplish that.

You aren't the target audience. Your mother and grandmother are. And that generation does want this phone, not just/only for the phone, but for all the tertiary benefits it brings (Prime, App of the Week, etc)

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#48

Post by pinkyand »

rdl wrote: post #42
tmuir wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, there will always be some people who can afford a $200 phone, and others that can't. But for those who can, I'm amazed at how much emphasis is placed on the upfront cost of the phone itself, versus the total cost over the 2 years of a normal contract. Lets just pick easy numbers and say your monthly bill is $100, which is probably on the low end, but it still illustrates my point. Over two years, you're going t…

Part of the reason these people don't have $200 to pay for a phone is because they don't think about lifecycle costs of purchases in general.

Maybe for those people, someone should design a plan in which you cash for signing to a low cost plan for a higher price?

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#49

Post by ulfw »

largote wrote: post #12
badusername wrote: post #8

It's interesting how the dynamics work these days, and how Amazon just doesn't seem to be getting it. People are perfectly happy to sign a 2-year contract on a well-designed fully-rounded functional phone, they do that by the tens of millions. They even pay $200 to get the phone. The phone has become personal, and also a necessity as you go through the day. Going through 2 years on a badly designed phone just because…

This may seem weird in Silicon Valley, but even in the US, a lot of people don't have $200 to pay for a phone.

But then they have $100/month to pay for the plan? It's not like subsidized phone plans in the US are cheap.

Re: Amazon Cuts Struggling Phone’s Price to 99 Cents

#50

Post by largote »

ulfw wrote: post #49
largote wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may seem weird in Silicon Valley, but even in the US, a lot of people don't have $200 to pay for a phone.

But then they have $100/month to pay for the plan? It's not like subsidized phone plans in the US are cheap.

Yes, but with a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck, it's easier to rationalize costs that are not immediate.
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