Today's Above Avalon stories:

Jeff Bezos Raises the White Flag
The Allure of Cheap Smartphones
Thursday Q&A (Why did Sprint's first bet with iPhone not work out?)

We kick things off with news that Amazon is scaling back its consumer hardware ambitions. I was always skeptical of the strategy. After going over a bit of history as to where Amazon went wrong, we discuss what this announcement suggests about the current state of the consumer hardware industry. Next, we talk about Obi Worldphone, John Sculley's smartphone start-up and the allure of cheap smartphones. The dream may be real, but reality is far from ideal. We conclude with Thursday Q&A which takes a look at why Sprint's first deal with iPhone didn't turn around Sprint's fortunes.

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