“Destroyed their companies” is a dramatic shorthand, not a proven cause-and-effect finding for every phone on this list. The strongest documented cases show how unsold devices and supplier commitments can produce major charges; they do not show that one handset alone ended its maker. The roundup names 13 phones, but its examples span very different business outcomes, from financial trouble to pivots and acquisitions.
What “destroyed their companies” does—and doesn’t—mean
A phone can be a costly failure without being the sole reason its manufacturer struggled, changed direction, was acquired, or shut down. To judge the claim fairly, separate three things: the device’s market performance, the costs the company recorded, and what ultimately happened to the business. The roundup’s title groups all three under one dramatic phrase, but the evidence available for these examples is uneven.
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Two cases have especially useful primary financial records: BlackBerry’s Z10 and Amazon’s Fire Phone. The other eleven are on the roundup’s list, but the available source record here does not independently establish the detailed histories or a direct causal link between each phone and its maker’s outcome. The roundup is the source for the list itself, not proof that every phone destroyed a company.
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| Phone and company | What the company reported | What the figure establishes |
|---|---|---|
| BlackBerry Z10 | In its fiscal 2014 second-quarter filing, BlackBerry reported an approximately $934 million pre-tax charge against inventory and supply commitments, primarily attributable to Z10 devices. The company described the charge as primarily non-cash. | A major product-linked accounting charge—not proof that the Z10 alone caused BlackBerry’s later business trajectory. |
| BlackBerry 10 devices | BlackBerry later reported an approximately $1.6 billion fiscal 2014 third-quarter inventory and supply-commitment charge primarily attributable to BlackBerry 10 devices. | This was a broader BlackBerry 10 charge. It should not be presented as a second Z10-only loss or added to the Z10 figure as though both amounts applied exclusively to that handset. |
| Amazon Fire Phone | Amazon’s 2014 Form 10-K reported $170 million in Fire Phone inventory valuation and supplier commitment costs; substantially all was recorded in the third quarter of 2014. | A reported cost associated with the product, not a sales figure and not by itself evidence that the Fire Phone caused Amazon’s overall performance. |
BlackBerry’s filing gives context for the Z10-related charge: the company cited weak BlackBerry 10 sell-through amid a mature market and intense competition. It also described delayed enterprise-platform functionality as a factor in slower adoption of BES 10. Those are company-reported contributing conditions, not a finding that one phone alone explains the outcome. BlackBerry’s September 27, 2013 Form 6-K contains the fiscal 2014 second-quarter disclosure and later third-quarter charge information.
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Amazon’s filing is the primary source for the Fire Phone amount: Amazon’s 2014 Form 10-K, filed January 30, 2015. Contemporary reporting also covered the write-off, but the filing is the company record for the accounting disclosure.
The 13 phones named in the roundup
- YotaPhone 2
- Essential PH-1
- BlackBerry Z10
- Palm Pre
- Neonode N2
- Turing Phone
- Nextbit Robin
- Sendo X
- Lumigon T3
- Creo Mark 1
- Solana Saga
- HTC One M9
- Wileyfox Swift
This is the roundup’s list, not a ranking by losses or a set of equally verified corporate histories. The available primary records here substantiate specific product charges for BlackBerry and Amazon; they do not establish comparable figures or causal conclusions for the other named devices. Outcomes across such a list can include shutdown, acquisition, pivot, or financial trouble—different endings that should not be treated as synonymous.
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How to read the title’s claim
- Accounting charge: A company may recognize that inventory or supplier commitments will not deliver their expected value. That records a cost; it is not a unit-sales total.
- Business trouble: A weak launch can deepen existing pressures, but a company’s broader trajectory may involve competition, platform strategy, timing, financing, and other products.
- Corporate outcome: A shutdown, acquisition, pivot, and period of financial difficulty are not interchangeable. A phone’s failure does not prove it directly caused any one of them.
The defensible takeaway is narrower than the headline: some phone launches became costly product failures, and BlackBerry’s Z10 and Amazon’s Fire Phone have documented charges associated with inventory or commitments. For the other entries, the list identifies cases the roundup treats as cautionary, but the evidence here does not support assigning a specific loss or claiming that the device alone destroyed its company.
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