Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has given the clearest indication yet that the firm hasn’t been deterred by the failure of the much-maligned Amazon Fire Phone.
Speaking at the Business Insider Ignition conference, Bezos claimed it will take “many iterations” to perfect the range and pleaded for patience. He called the Fire Phone a ‘bold bet’ that is yet to pay off.
“People love to focus on things that aren’t working,” he said. “That’s fine, but it’s incredibly hard to get people to take bold bets. And if you push people to take bold bets, there will be experiments… that don’t work.”
“It’s going to take many iterations,” he added when asked when another version will be on the way. “I don’t know. Ask me in some number of years.”
Bezos’ comments follow those of Jorrit Van de Meulen, Amazon’s VP of devices, who last month claimed the company had learned a lot from the first Fire Phone, despite the torrent of criticisms. He said the “second step will be slightly different from our first step.”
Amazon has faced a backlash over the premium price-tag, mid-range specs, questionable build quality, as well as the shopping-centric user interface. The Firefly UI tool, which allowed users to identify any object with a view to purchasing it from Amazon’s portals also failed to resonate with users.
The company was also forced to write off £100m on lost sales and has now heavily discounted the phone in a bid to shift inventory
What would you like to see in the second generation Fire Phone in order to help Amazon replicate the success of the Kindle Fire tablet range? Or do you think Amazon just give up on the smartphone market?
