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.
I guess that means they are indeed getting out of the hardware business like you FUDed about. (Except of course for Tablets and Kindles and after the FCC filing for a new Fire TV unit with 4k. Set Top boxes)
hahahah