Amazon's dabbling in the smartphone market looks like it could be a disaster, according to data compiled by The Guardian. The massive online retail master launched its Fire Phone last month, and analytics from ad network Chitika and the data experts at comScore suggest the company sold no more than 35,000 units in that timeframe.
A Cooler Is the Most Funded Project Ever on Kickstarter Now
That sales figure is less than modest--it looks like Amazon has a massive flop on its hands. CEO Jeff Bezos will learn how hard the smartphone market is to crack, just like Microsoft and Facebook before him.
When the Fire Phone came out in July, Amazon really celebrated its 3D perspective screen technology and its ability to scan stuff in real life and buy it on Amazon. Bezos secured a deal to launch the phone on AT&T's network, the largest in the country.
Time Warner Cable Customers Without Internet Across the Country
Reviews have been middling, though, and the publicity petered out soon after Bezos stepped out of sight.
Chitika claims that Fire Phones took up less than 0.02 percent of smartphones used in the 20 days after the device's release, which, paired with comScore's data, estimates about 26,400 Fire Phones were in use. Allowing for a wider margin of error, The Guardian places the number of Fire Phones in use at 35,000.
Amazon, of course, never reveals specifics about device sales. Bezos prefers to let the earnings do the talking for him. In this case, they're pretty quiet.
