Amazon released its first smartphone the “Fire Phone” in July 2014, and the device was widely considered “a fiasco.” By September 2015, Amazon halted selling the Fire Phone. According to the New Yorker report, the Fire Phone team Freed led grew to include up to 1,000 employees and cost the company over $100 million. Four months after Fire Phone was introduced, Freed unveiled the ‘Echo’. Jeff Bezos stated, the time spent on the failed phone helped in driving the Echo’s success.
“Jeff Bezos to exec after product totally flopped: ‘You can’t, for one minute, feel bad’” Read more…