The failure of the Fire Phone didn't come as a surprise to anyone, apart from Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos. The Amazon CEO and founder reportedly worked closely with the team on the Fire Phone, approving every feature on the smartphone and making sure it matched his tastes.

One of the big features Bezos wanted on the Fire Phone was a 3D display, despite multiple source talking to Fast Company claiming engineers were not happy with the feature, after spending millions on research.

Like Us on Facebook

It is normal for Bezos to get involved with the production of a new service. But this time it was different, Bezos was stepping into unknown waters in the smartphone market, and started to model the phone off his own interests, rather than consumer interest.

Features like FireFly seemed quirky but did not work for the mass audience, looking more like a way to sell Amazon goods than anything useful. The OS also featured some apps, but it was clear Fire OS lacked the scale of iOS or Android.

Several engineers had lost all interest in the project by the end, following Bezos' pervasive overview of every feature. It sounds like a Steve Jobs tale, although Jobs always seemed to look at the end customer for satisfaction, rather than himself.

The results of Bezos' persistence on certain features has lead to over $500 million in operating loss over the third and fourth quarters. The Fire Phone has dropped in price twice since launch, and Amazon recently sold it for one day at $189 off contract.

Still, it is not uncommon for Amazon to fail at the first hurdle, but if we have learned anything from the e-commerce giant, it will come back next year with a better product for everyone.

TagsAmazon, Jeff Bezos, fire phone, Firefly, 3D display