Brian Barrett, for Wired. And nice title, too.
Amazon’s Hardware Isn’t About You, and That’s the Problem
“They priced it like an iPhone,” says 451 Research VP Kevin Burden. “They priced it at a premium phone level, which makes people think it should perform like an iPhone, and people who buy it should expect it to be the same type of status symbol as an iPhone. That certainly wasn’t the case.” […]
A smartphone’s success or failure hinges on one central question, says [Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen]: “What can this device do for me that my current device can’t do already? And does it do it so much better that I’m willing to drop the device I have now and get it immediately?”
Fire Phone inarguably let you buy things from Amazon faster than you current device can. Clearly, that wasn’t enough to get people to drop their devices. Which is telling, and unfortunate, because that’s also what drives the bulk of Amazon’s hardware lineup.
and later this:
Dedicated Amazon hardware doesn’t make buying from Amazon that much easier; it just makes the opportunities more obvious.
