From DailyTech: Just how desparate is Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) to clear out inventory of its fire phone? Well, in the UK it's offering the 32 GB edition of the phone unlocked for GBP£99. That's roughly $150 USD, or roughly 25 percent of the price of an unlocked Fire Phone here in the States ($199 USD, currently).
UK shoppers can also buy a 64 GB model for GBP£149 (~$225), but that model is locked to Telefónica, S.A.'s (BME:TEF) UK O2 network. Like in the U.S., where the Fire Phone was locked to AT&T, Inc. (T) network, in the UK the Fire Phone was locked to O2's network.
In the UK the price was not dropped as it was in the U.S., despite similarly sluggish sales. The 32 GB edition of the phone currently retails in the EU nation for £399 ($600 USD). Thus this discount is a slightly bigger deal for the minority who are interested.
On account of the high price, carrier exclusivity, sub-par hardware (e.g. the 720p display), and poor app selection, the Fire Phone was a massive flop. Launched in June 2014, by August of last year it had only sold an estimated 35k units. In its calendar Q3 2014 earnings report, it took a $170M USD writedown on the discounts necessary to sell off unsold stock of the device.
Amazon has expressed interest in developing future smartphone models, but clearly it will have to carefully heed the lessons it learned this time around.
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