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Following the failure of the Fire phone, Amazon has in recent weeks laid off "dozens" of engineers at its Silicon Valley hardware development center, according to the Wall Street Journal. These were the first layoffs to hit the development center, known as Lab126, in the unit's 11-year history. About 3,000 people work at the development center.Lab126 is responsible for the development of Amazon's consumer hardware, including its successful line of Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets. More recently, the group has also developed the Echo, a virtual assistant that can be programmed to do things like control household appliances, and the Dash, small buttons that when pushed order popular household items like soap and baby diapers.The slimdown at Lab126 comes just about a year after the introduction of the Fire phone, a smartphone that was quickly panned by critics for its gimmicky features like a simulated 3D display. Amazon in October 2014 took a $170 million charge on unsold Fire phone inventory.While Amazon has not publicly commented on the report, the Journal notes that Lab126 is still actively developing several projects, including a battery for the company's Kindle e-readers that can last as long as two years on a single charge, up from about two months on current models.