Will Amazon Abandon Its SmartPhone Strategy?

First Samsung, then Sony, now Amazon is pointing to dismal smartphone sales when explaining disappointing quarterly earnings.

Just 3 months ago, at an Apple inspired media event, Jeff Bezos proudly announced Amazon's new "Fire Phone" as a technological marvel that would transform consumer behaviors.

It seems like that plan is not coming to fruition just yet.

Amazon just took a $170 million write-down on the Fire Phone, equal to $0.36 per share, explaining a significant part of the overall -0.95$ loss.

It also disclosed that it had $83 million of units in unsold inventory. 

Using an un-subsidized price of $450, back of napkin calculations indicate that they could have 5-600,000 unsold units whereof 380,000 units were written off. 

Conclusion? It is simply not selling and in response, Amazon dropped the price for a two-year contract to just $0.99.

With the jaw dropping demand for iPhone 6/6 Plus, Apple has turned out to be a fierce competitor and many consumers may simply prefer not to mix their Amazon.com shopping activities with their choice of phone. 

Jeff Bezos may choose to continue the Fire Phone production line as one of many expensive hobbies, but shareholders thirsty for profits are breathing down his neck...