Lessons from the Disaster Playbook
The Infamous Amazon Fire Phone
The Amazon Fire Phone (2014–2015) went from a retail value of $649 at its release to $0.99 (with a contract at AT&T) within two years.¹ One could argue the phone was Amazon’s biggest mistake; a mistake that’s often kicked under the rug. When giant companies like Amazon make a blunder, we often forgive and forget. People will say “Oh, did that really happen? I totally forgot.” For consumers, it’s convenient to forget failed products. Life goes on, more products get made. As designers, we can stop to take these moments of failure as lessons.
So what exactly happened with the Amazon Fire phone? Did it combust? No, that would be another phone. The reason for the failure of Amazon’s foray into the world of smartphones in 2014 was due to a multitude of missed targets.
We often ask how something should be made, but let’s not forget to ask should something be made. The Amazon Fire Phone was meant to encapsulate the best of Amazon. Whether it was intended or not, this was made the focus of the phone because it was the most successful part. The issue is how many people buy a phone based on how well it makes essentially one app work? If the aim was to make a handheld device that highlights Amazon’s services, they already made it in 2011 with the Amazon Fire Tablet.
The second strike against the Amazon Fire Phone is its failure to meet standard expectations of a phone. Amazon was too focused on being innovative with marketable features, such as the gesture-controlled interface, that they fell short on making decent mobile experiences. One example being the Fire Phone did not have access to a Google Play Store, even though it was technically an Android phone. Instead, Amazon used its own version of the Play Store which had drastically less and lower-rated apps.²
While there are plenty more grievances to cover for Amazon’s one and only smartphone endeavor, the key takeaways are:
- Is the product needed? Does the problem exist?
- Innovation does not work if baseline expectations are not met.
Amazon has always had the spirit of expanding to other sectors of service. This has been successful for the company in recent times with the proliferation of AI products, introducing food delivery, and even delving into the health sector of pharmacy services. We know that the Amazon Fire Phone was the first embarkment into smartphone territory, but will it be the last? If not, Amazon has plenty of material to work from to improve. The best part is we, too, can take from the disaster playbook to improve our work as well.
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