Amazon Cuts Fire Phone Price to Ignite Sales

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By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 27 November 2014 11:12 IST
Amazon on Wednesday slashed the price of Fire mobile phones that stalled after launch early this year, becoming a drag on the US online retail titan's bottom line.

The price cut, which Amazon said would last until December 1, was the second for Fire and was included in a set of holiday-shopping season deals announced for items including Kindle ereaders.

Fire smartphones free of accompanying contracts with telecom carriers are available for $199 and come with a year-long membership to Amazon Prime subscription service which gives customers free shipping and access to music, videos and other online content.

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Amazon Fire phone hit the market mid-year at a price of $649 (roughly Rs. 39,500) each without contracts, or $200 (roughly Rs. 12,200) with multi-year telecom service deals.

Unlocked Fire phones are compatible with GSM networks provided by US carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Metro PCS and Cricket.

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Seattle-based Amazon in September tried to ignite Fire sales by dropping the unlocked price to $449 (roughly Rs. 27,400), and offering handsets for just 99 cents if bought along with a two-year service contract with telecom carrier AT&T.

While some Amazon products and services have been popular, its smartphone market share has been "effectively zero," according to the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners consultancy.

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Amazon posted widening losses in the recently ended fiscal quarter, raising doubts on whether investors will support chief executive Jeff Bezos' strategy of putting investment ahead of profit.

Amazon took a charge of $170 million (roughly Rs. 1,050 crores) for inventory, mainly for unsold phones.

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Some analysts believe that the US holiday season will test Amazon because traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are responding to the competition with offerings such as free shipping.

 
KEY SPECS
Display 4.70-inch
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
Front Camera 2.1-megapixel
Rear Camera 13-megapixel
RAM 2GB
Storage 32GB
Battery Capacity 2400mAh
OS Fire OS 3.5.0
Resolution 720x1280 pixels
 
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