How many did they lay off?
You said the Fire TV was discontinued yet the new tech has been leaked for over a month. If it is discontinued then why is it leaked? If they are going to stop making stuff then they don't need engineers. So then why weren't all of them fired and the unit disbanded?
"It indicates a major re-allignment in Amazon's plans to concentrate on their core competency, retail, not developing hardware."
Yeah cause they have no luck at all with hardware sales...
*cough* kindle *cough*
The primary leak that all other reports are based on came in early July. None others since then. Everything else has been based on that one single leak which came from an FCC list. No leak from Amazon. The Fire box has been sold out since then. . . so where is it?
As to Kindle sales, Amazon has always been totally silent on the number of Kindles sold. . . and sales have always been imputed by people assuming the numbers with little basis in facts. The same on the Amazon Fire phones and TV units. Bezos does not say how many they sell. Amazon is silent about it.
As to the number of engineers? I really do not know. The reports seemed to say all or almost all of them. . .
Why Amazon is laying off dozens of its engineers
— by Victor Luckerson — Fortune — AUGUST 27, 2015, 8:24 AM EDTIt’s the first time Amazon has cut employees at its Lab126, a report says.
Many of the engineers behind Amazon’s AMZN -0.13% failed Fire phone are getting the boot, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The online retail giant is cutting dozens of employees from Lab126, the hardware outfit that develops products such as the Fire phone, the Kindle, and Amazon’s Echo, the paper said.
This is the first time Amazon has ever laid off employees from Lab126, sources told the Journal. Some projects in the works, such as a large-screen tablet, have also been scuttled as part of a restructuring process. Amazon is reportedly still working on a high-end kitchen computer code-named Kabinet that would serve as a hub for the smart home of the future.
Amazon declined to comment to the Journal, and did not immediately return a request for comment from TIME and Fortune.
Amazon’s Fire phone was supposed to take on the iPhone and high-end Android handsets head-on, but the device failed to find mass appeal. Amazon took a $170 million write down on unsold Fire phone inventory last fall.