Amazon Exec: 'We Didn't Get The Price Right' On The Fire Phone

An Amazon executive admitted that the company priced its smartphone too high, Fortune's JP Mangalindan reports.

"We didn't get the price right," Amazon senior vice president of devices David Limp told Mangalindan. "I think people come to expect a great value, and we sort of mismatched expectations. We thought we had it right. But we're also willing to say, 'we missed.' And so we corrected."

Amazon's Fire phone originally cost $199 but the company shot the price down to 99 cents after only a few months. In its most recent earnings call, the company admitted that it took a $170 million hit and had $83 million worth of unsold phones.

Amazon's phone boasts 3D effects and a camera mode that can automatically identify real-world objects, but it was widely seen as a bit of a flop at launch. Limp says that several software updates since July have fixed some problems users had with the device. Despite the financial hit the smartphone caused, Amazon plans to keep working hard on the Fire phone, taking its usual long-term approach.

"When you're taking risks, they're not all going to pay off," Limp says. "Those are the facts."

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.