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Prime customers are Amazon's highest spending customers. They, according to this report[1], spend more than 2x what non-Prime customers spend - $1340 / year. Prime customers aren't likely to be swayed by a low-cost, budget phone. So it makes sense for them to tie their premium Fire Phone to this segment of their customer base.

This also doesn't mean they can't do a budget phone later.

[1] http://bgr.com/2013/12/17/amazon-prime-spending-study-cirp/

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Only one data point, but I'm a Prime customer that spends significantly more than $1340 a year on Amazon and I have a Nexus 5 which costs just a little more than half what this Amazon phone costs.

I don't need a "budget" phone, I can afford something much higher-end; but I still like to get value for price and in the face of the Nexus 5, the Moto G, the Moto E or the Lumia 635 all of which cost half or even less than a quarter of the price of the the Amazon Fire phone, it just doesn't look like a good value to me.

YMMV if the 3D perspective thing is that appealing to you, or you want a cellphone with a relatively very good camera, but neither of these are particularly important to me.

Same here.

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