Dive Brief:

• Amazon Monday cut the price of its Fire phone to a symbolic 99 cents with a two-year contract, down from $199 for the 32-gigabyte model. The 64-gigabyte Fire phone is now priced at $99, reduced from $299.

• The Fire phone was released in June to much fanfare from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, but mixed reviews from tech geeks. It went on sale at the end of July.

• The price cut comes just a day before Apple’s highly anticipated “big event,” where it’s expected to unveil a significantly altered iPhone and iPad, and possibly a wearable. 

Dive Insight:

Amazon’s radical price-cutting move has something of a “me-too” feeling from a little brother who’s watching an older sibling get a whole lot of attention. Amazon hasn’t released sales figures for its Fire phone, and says it doesn’t plan to. The new bargain-basement prices still include a free year of Prime membership, which includes free two-day shipping on many items as well as Amazon’s streaming entertainment service. Amazon has scored big with its Kindle device, but it doesn’t look like the phone has the same competitive edge, at least not this debut version.