Amazon finally sold out of Fire Phones
Amazon finally sold out of its ill-received Fire smartphones in the at the end of August, the company confirmed to GeekWire. That's slightly over a year after the phone's launch, which first went on sale in July 2014.
On product pages for the Fire phone, which touted 3D-features and a real-world image scanner as its most innovative features, Amazon ominously writes that it doesn't known "when or if" the phone will be back in stock.
Likely, it won't be, as the update comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report that says Amazon has laid off dozens of engineers who worked on the phone.
The phone faced harsh criticism from the beginning, in part because of its high price and because at launch it was only available for AT&T customers. Last October, Amazon announced that it had taken a $170 million charge for costs related to the Fire phone, including $83 million worth of unsold inventory.
Looks like that inventory is finally out the door, albeit much later.
Ironically, the news broke the same day as Apple hosted a mega-event to announce its two new iPhones, which typically sell out lightening-fast during the pre-order period.