Amazon finally puts the Fire phone out of its misery

Good riddance, Fire phone. Photo: Amazon

Good riddance, Fire phone. Photo: Amazon

The Amazon Fire phone is no more.

After a series of heavy discounts, Amazon has finally shifted all of its Fire phone inventory (or so it claims), and the retail giant has made the wise decision not to build any additional units.

The Fire phone has been a disappointment from day one. Amazon combined uninspiring specifications with its own Fire OS operating system, then tried to charge customers a premium price for it. Unsurprisingly, few were persuaded by its scheme.

Amazon reportedly sold just 35,000 Fire phone handsets during its first month of availability, and back in October the company took a $170 million charge which it attributed to “Fire phone inventory valuation and supplier commitment costs.”

It’s thought Amazon was sitting on around $83 million worth of unsold inventory back then, but after a series of hefty discounts, one of which reduced the device to just $130, that inventory is now gone. That’s what Amazon told The Verge anyway.

Whatever the case may be, Amazon says it isn’t making any more Fire phones, so the device has now been pulled from its own online store and AT&T’s. There were plans to develop a Fire phone 2, but it’s unclear whether those still stand now that Amazon’s hardware division has been downsized.