There are always expectations ahead of an event. Especially when it comes to a specific company. Despite the fact that Apple is set to have quite a few different products on hand at their media event on September 9, we all have our own expectations for how the event is going to go, and what they’re going to announce. The same can be said about HTC, or Samsung or whatever other company you can think of.
It’s when companies can buck the expectations and announce something really great, or tack on some details that we never would have guessed that the events, and the devices tied to those events, really stand out. This is one of the reasons why Apple’s, “One more thing,” caught fire. We loved it. And, as far as I’m concerned, it’s something I miss a great deal.
Amazon is one of those companies. And they managed to buck expectations in a big way with their Fire phone announcement earlier in 2014. I think we can all safely say that, while plenty of the details regarding the handset’s hardware were good enough, it was the price tag that shocked most people.
I was one of them. I honestly didn’t see that coming.
If you’ve already forgotten, the 32 GB Fire phone launched for $199.99 with a new, two-year contract. The 64 GB option? $299.99. As soon as those prices were revealed, I remember Twitter just kind of exploding with question marks. And then sarcasm.
A lot of sarcasm.
That same sort of situation happened today, when Amazon officially announced that the price of the Fire phone would drop significantly along with that two-year agreement attached. Now you can get the Fire phone for only 99 cents for the 32 GB variant, or $99.99 for the 64 GB option. Those prices are almost acceptable, and yet I can’t help but think that they’re still too expensive. That, somehow, even on the second try Amazon still missed the mark here.
The Fire phone should be free on a contract. Yes, 99 cents is annoyingly close to that, but this is a device that’s sole purpose is to sell things to the owner through Amazon’s retail storefront. Yes, every other manufacturer out there has some kind of tilt towards their own ecosystem, but no one is more apparent than Amazon.
If you buy the Amazon Fire phone, you get a free year’s subscription to Prime, and that’s a pretty good bonus. However, you know what the option should really be? You get a free Fire phone if you subscribe to Prime. Or you pay 99 cents for the Fire phone if you subscribe to Prime for a year. Now *that* would have been a positive, exciting twist on an announcement.
In any event, did you pick up a Fire phone? If not, what kept you away from it? Price or specs? Let me know!
