(ThyBlackMan.com) The smartphone game is a must win. A company must get in and make sure their smartphone can get a foothold in a very crowded market. The iPhone is its own thing because nothing else can officially use iOS but Apple products. With Android, it’s a bloated pool. You have multiple smartphone manufacturers at the top using Android to its fullest and some in the middle putting out phones for the budget consumer. Let’s look at two big name companies who rolled out failed smartphones.
The Microsoft Lumia (2011-2017)
I didn’t know which one to start with first but Microsoft is a tech company that has been around for decades. It started up just under a year before Apple and was its main competitor for years. When Apple jumped into the smartphone game it seemed like Microsoft would’ve chased its rival posthaste.
Of course, Microsoft had other things going one business-wise. The company as a whole had to be streamlined. Eventually, one of those projects that ended up being cut was the Windows Phone.
Microsoft got into the smartphone war a few years after Apple dropped the iPhone on everyone. Nokia was called up from the Microsoft bench to manufacture a lineup of phones while the company itself handled the OS. What they came up with was Lumia series and the Windows Phone OS.
When the first Microsoft Lumia dropped, I was extremely impressed. It was a cool looking phone with the dopest home screen. It used a pre-Windows 8 title layout and everything just looked neat and modern. I loved this phone. Now, I always wondered what would’ve happened had Microsoft put more resources into this handset. What if it was promoted more than it was?
The phone itself was a very good device and it was similar to the iPhone in that it relied on a proprietary OS unlike what you’d get with Android. After Nokia was taken off the Lumia project, Microsoft took it over for three years or so before it ran the white flag on the smartphone game.
I don’t want to say it came in too late because there are constantly new smartphone lines coming out. It was probably just a case of Microsoft Mobile not earning its keep and it had to be dropped.
Amazon’s Fire Phone (2014-2015)
If you want to talk about the definition of “here today, gone today” look no further than Amazon’s Fire Phone. It was never talked up like it would be the next big thing in smartphones but it had a little something going for it with it being entrenched in Amazon’s ecosystem of services.
Fire OS is an Android variant—read: Android mutant—that was catered just to Amazon stuff. You’ll find it on the Kindle family of tablets. As a matter of fact, that’s basically what the Amazon Fire Phone was: a smaller Kindle that could make phone calls with a carrier. Everything you could do on the Kindle HD could be done this phone.
I knew it could be purchased via Amazon and it probably moved units mostly through the site because it did not do well in stores. The buzz was there for a few weeks, died off, and Amazon would announce it in its big sales regularly. I never aspired to get this phone like I did the Lumia but I was always curious about it.
Honestly, it should’ve done better than it did but it was considered dated by 2014 and 2015 standards. Poor sales sealed the fearsome Fire Phone’s fate.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.