????他說：“說實話，亞馬遜這款手機實在乏善可陳，它的設(shè)計本身就太平庸了。”

????布倫納認(rèn)為，手機是一種私人物品，人們在挑選手機時會對設(shè)計格外在意。與iPhone和Moto X這種連邊框側(cè)顏色都可以定制的安卓手機相比，F(xiàn)ire手機毫無特色可言。他最后拋出了一句從技術(shù)角度來說堪稱登峰造極的鄙薄之語。

????他說：“就激發(fā)購買欲而言，我現(xiàn)在把Fire擺在黑莓（BlackBerry）之后。”

????另一個幫不上忙的情況是，不少主流智能手機制造商都希望把用戶鎖在自家產(chǎn)品生態(tài)圈之內(nèi)，但這款手機堪稱有史以來最肆無忌憚的嘗試。的確，iPhone一直引導(dǎo)用戶使用蘋果的各種服務(wù)——安卓也會讓用戶使用谷歌的各種產(chǎn)品——但亞馬遜卻更進(jìn)一步，干脆在Fire手機上裝了個相當(dāng)于“購買”的按鍵。按下這個鍵，只需幾步就能享用兩日送達(dá)的快遞服務(wù)了。

????伊夫?比哈爾是一位曾獲得大獎的瑞士工業(yè)設(shè)計師，他的客戶包括三星公司、Jawbone公司和赫曼米勒公司（Herman Miller）。他說：“我覺得‘購買’按鍵有點強迫性。要加入這個功能，其實還有許多更加優(yōu)雅的好辦法?！?/p>

????而在這款手機的銷售方式上，亞馬遜同樣暈招頻出。你在美國的上千家實體零售店和四大移動運營商處都能看到安卓手機和iPhone。但要買Fire手機卻只有少得可憐的幾個渠道。如果你想買它，就只能去亞馬遜官網(wǎng)、百思買（Best Buy）等少數(shù)幾家實體零售店，以及它的獨家移動運營商美國電話電報公司（AT&T）。

????此外，亞馬遜的定價也頗為失敗。Fire的定價是200美元，這算是業(yè)內(nèi)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)售價，卻跟亞馬遜公司長期堅持的低價戰(zhàn)略背道而馳。

????就現(xiàn)狀而言，馬哈尼認(rèn)為，F(xiàn)ire手機就算降價甩賣，在美國智能手機市場的份額也很難突破10%。實際上，手機降價很難提升銷量。比如，美國電話電報公司去年對HTC First（配有以Facebook為中心的軟件系統(tǒng)）的降價促銷就沒能挽救它最終沒落的命運。

????但是，如果亞馬遜明年能推出設(shè)計更具競爭力、銷售渠道也更廣的新機型，它可能還有反戈一擊的機會。它在2011年推出的首款Kindle Fire平板電腦根本不怎么樣，但后續(xù)升級版則有了顯著提升，盡管國際數(shù)據(jù)公司(IDC)表示，亞馬遜在全球平板電腦市場的份額僅有微不足道的0.4%。

????吉列特表示：“這可能并不是我們能看到的最后一款Fire手機。但如果亞馬遜已經(jīng)汲取了教訓(xùn)，那么推出下一款手機時，該公司想必會變得更加低調(diào)一些。”

????譯者：清遠(yuǎn)

????“To be totally frank, the Amazon phone has zero cache,” he says. “The design itself is very, overtly neutral.”

????A phone is a personal object and conscious design choice on the part of its owner, Brunner argues. Alongside the iPhone and Android devices like the Moto X, customizable down to the color of its side trim, the Fire phone is nondescript. He went so far as to toss out the ultimate techie insult.

????“I actually put the Fire down below BlackBerry right now as an object of desire,” Brunner says.

????It also didn’t help that Amazon’s phone was the most brazen attempt yet by any major smartphone maker to lock its users into its own ecosystem of products. Certainly, the iPhone has long since steered users towards Apple services — and likewise Android users to Google offerings — but Amazon went one step further by adding what amounts to a “Buy” button on the side of the Fire phone. Click it, and you’re several steps away from two-day delivery.

????“I personally felt the ‘Buy’ button was a bit forced,” says Yves Behar, the award-winning Swiss industrial designer whose past and present clients include Samsung, Jawbone and Herman Miller. “There were more elegant ways to go about introducing that.”

????Amazon also misfired on how it sells the phone. Android devices and iPhones are on the shelves at thousands of physical retailers and all four top U.S. cell carriers. But people can buy the Fire phone at far fewer channels. If you want the phone, your only options are Amazon.com, a few brick and mortar retailers like Best Buy BBY 2.16% , and AT&T T -0.14% , the phone’s exclusive cell carrier.

????Additionally, Amazon stumbled on pricing. Selling the Fire for $200, the industry standard, ran contrary to Amazon’s long-held, company-wide strategy of undercutting the competition.

????As it stands, Mahaney, the RBC analyst, doesn’t expect the Fire phone’s U.S. smartphone market share to crack 10%, even after the price drop. Indeed, price drops on phones rarely lift sales. For example, AT&T’s price cut last year on the HTC First, a phone with Facebook-centric software, didn’t save it from eventually being killed off.

????But Amazon may have a shot next year if it comes up with a newer model with a more competitive design and wider availability. Its first Kindle Fire tablet in 2011 was by no means a home run, but the versions that followed proved substantially better, even if Amazon’s share of the worldwide tablet market remains a miniscule .4%, according to IDC.

????“This probably isn’t the last Fire phone we’ll see,” says Gillett, from Forrester. “But if Amazon has learned anything, the announcement of the next one will be more low-key.”