MS right to cancel 3D touch UI McLaren as Amazon FirePhone Fizzles?

The hype at launch from Amazon suggested their 3D UI ‘Dynamic Perspective’ FirePhone would be the next big thing. But it instantly went downhill for some when they found out a) the specs weren’t high end b) Amazon was still charging flagship prices for it and c) the only thing it seemed to excel in was buying Amazon products.

It seemed quite the recipe for disaster for a phone that has no cult status for instant no-matter-wut sales. The Independent writes that Amazon wrote off 83 Million USD in FirePhone inventory  (out of a 170 Million ‘primarily related’ to overestimating the device’s popularity). It probably would have made more of a dent if it tried a similar approach that it had with tablets – lower prices to entangle them in your ecosystem.

Microsoft’s McLaren phone also had a 3D UI though actually interacting on a new 3D interface as opposed to the 3D perspective that FirePhone offered. Moreover, both software and hardware were rumoured to be leapfrogging the competition – all the latest cutting edge stuff on the specsheet at least. That was cancelled in favour of the ‘affordable flagship’. 3D Touch however is still being developed, it’s just a matter of when (perhaps along with Windows 10 for phones?)

Source: TheIndependent

Category: Nokia