Amazon's Fire is flickering.

Bill Lucia Jul 10, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Amazon's Fire is flickering. </h1>
                <h2><p>Unveiled in late June, the Fire phone was expected to generate 1 - 2 million units and a New York Times article yesterday called it an "expensive venture" for Amazon. On Monday though, Amazon announced that it will drastically drop its price on the phone to just 99</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/bill-lucia-crosscut-com/">Bill Lucia</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Unveiled in late June, the Fire phone was expected to generate 1 - 2 million units and a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/technology/amazon-struggling-fire-phone.html?_r=0&ref=dev.cascadepbs.org"><em>New York Times </em>article yesterday </a>called it an "expensive venture" for Amazon. On Monday though, Amazon announced that it will drastically drop its price on the phone to just 99 cents (a price drop of about $200). <em>The<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/technology/amazon-struggling-fire-phone.html?_r=0&ref=dev.cascadepbs.org"> Times</a></em> reports that some analysts aren't even sure that will be enough.But here's the beauty of being one of the world's largest Internet companies: At the same time that the Fire is burning into obsolescence, Amazon <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2014/09/drone-deal-amazon-opens-a-drone-store.html?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">announced</a> a new "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=9699105011&ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">Drone Store</a>" today. We're not kidding. Go order a drone online. Because you can. And while you're at it, join us in crying about the <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2014/vinod-khosla-thinks-machine-learning-coming-take-jobs/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">machine learning</a> that will probably wipe out the utility of humans by 2034. — K.H.</p>
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Unveiled in late June, the Fire phone was expected to generate 1 - 2 million units and a New York Times article yesterday called it an "expensive venture" for Amazon. On Monday though, Amazon announced that it will drastically drop its price on the phone to just 99 cents (a price drop of about $200). The Times reports that some analysts aren't even sure that will be enough.But here's the beauty of being one of the world's largest Internet companies: At the same time that the Fire is burning into obsolescence, Amazon announced a new "Drone Store" today. We're not kidding. Go order a drone online. Because you can. And while you're at it, join us in crying about the machine learning that will probably wipe out the utility of humans by 2034. — K.H.

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By Bill Lucia

Bill Lucia writes about Seattle City Hall and politics for Crosscut. He can be reached at bill.lucia@crosscut.com and you can follow him on Twitter @bill_lucia.