Amazon has already accepted publicly that its first smartphone — the Fire Phone — has been a disaster. The unsold stock of the phone is going to cost the phone $170 million in writeback charges.
Now, after accepting that they got the price of the phone wrong, and in a bid to get rid of those unsold stock, Amazon has now reduced the price of the Fire Phone to a mere $199 without any contract. Yes, that’s the price for the retail, carrier unlocked GSM variant of the handset. When Amazon had announced the handset earlier this year, it was selling it for $650 off-contract and for $199 on AT&T with a two-year contract.
The Fire Phone does not come with Google Play Store or other Google Apps, but at this price, it sure is a tempting piece of hardware. The handset includes sports a 4.7-inch 720p LCD, a bunch of IR sensors and camera in the front for its unique 3D UI, 2GB RAM, a Snapdragon 800 processor and a 13MP camera with OIS technology. To further sweeten the deal, Amazon is still bundling an year of free Amazon Prime subscription with the handset — technically making it a $99 handset.
Keep in mind that the GSM model of the Fire Phone is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile, but is not compatible with CDMA carriers like Sprint and Verizon.
[Via Droid-Life]
