Thread: Lab126 layoffs
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Old 08-27-2015, 03:45 PM   #1
tomsem
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Lab126 layoffs

WSJ reports that Amazon has layed off 'dozens' of engineers who previously worked on Fire Phone, as part of a restructuring of the division.

Other (second hand) reports these were 'hardware engineers' but I haven't found any source for that term, which might imply only that they were outsourcing design and production of the next device, much as Nook has with Samsung or Google has done with ASUS and so forth.

To me, it still makes a lot of sense that Amazon would want its customers to carry an Amazon smartphone everywhere, and that device doesn't need to have 'dynamic perspective' to be successful. They can put FireOS on anything that would otherwise run Android and call it Fire Phone 2. But there seems no evidence that that is the plan, otherwise they could have laid off people months ago.

Meanwhile, on amazon.com, Fire Phone is not currently available. As of a couple of days ago, it was selling unlocked 32GB model for $129 (including 1 year of Prime). So it looks like it has sold out.

As a happy Fire Phone owner, I'm a little saddened, because it may mean there are no plans for significant updates to the existing Fire Phone. I'd like to see Lollypop, 'Alexa' voice assistent, and some smoothing of the rough edges in the Amazon apps I make heavy use of. I am not planning to get a new smartphone any time soon, but at least when I do get a new one, I will have had a pretty decent and inexpensive (I paid $180 including 1 yr Prime) one for awhile.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of Lab126 this fall.
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