With the runaway success of Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet - the media-happy device owns over half the Android tablet market - it seems only natural that the company would turn to smartphones next.
Amazon's strategy of putting all its media content directly into consumers' hands has worked out well so far, so wouldn't the Seattle company take the next logical step?
Like the Kindle Fire, an Amazon smartphone would be a veritable home-shopping network - replete with Kindle books, Android apps and Amazon Prime video - only as a phone, so it would be the only device users would really need.
Given the anticipation that's built up around a product that's not even certain to exist, we figured it wise to compile all the rumors and speculation in one place.
Will HTC make Amazon's phone?
Will Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC lend Amazon a hand with its upcoming phone? That's the latest speculation to hit the streets.
It's the kind of job HTC has been up for in the past, crafting the HTC First for Facebook. While that phone was a fizzle, HTC know how and Amazon clout could be a killer combo. This rumor has us intrigued.
Get this: Amazon will give the phone away for free
Update: no it won't. In an unusually concise statement, Amazon has said that it has no plans to release a phone this year, and if it does make a phone, it "would not be free." Sorry cheapskates.
We've heard of free shipping and low-priced phones on a two-year contract, but this is ridiculous. The latest rumor says Amazon will give its handset away for free.
Could it be true? Well, possibly. Amazon has a history of pricing its hardware dirt cheap, expecting to clean up on apps rather than the initial investment. It's not a bad plan, especially if the retail behemoth can get people signed up for Amazon Prime using the deal.
Amazon working on two phones, one of them 3D
We've debated whether it will be called the Kindle phone, Amazon phone or something else, but now it seems that Amazon is working on more than one device. That's the latest rumor coming in over the wire.
Beyond that, apparently one of the handsets will have 3D projection capabilities, sans glasses. That sort of technology has been a success for the Nintendo 3DS, but remember the LG Optimus 3D and HTC Evo 3D? We hardly do either, which makes us wonder what the online retail giant is planning.
Evi to be the Amazon Phone's Siri?
Back in January, Amazon acquired the startup behind a natural voice search engine similar to the Apple's Siri. Now the scent on the wind is that Amazon will be putting a chat-to app called Evi on its Amazon Phone .
It sounds logical, because Amazon would need this technology to be competitive, and it would be great on Kindle devices, too. Imagine yelling at those lock screen ads that you don't want Fifty Shades of Grey.
Amazon hires Windows Phone 7 head honcho
Amazon has added Microsoft's ex-Windows Phone General Manager to its stable of talent. Could this be a big name hire for developing the Amazon Kindle phone?
The former Microsoft man is named Kindel, Charlie Kindel, so we'd say he has the proper pedigree to help Amazon break into the market with an Amazon Phone or Kindle Phone, whatever the name ends up being. And despite the naming coincidence and the news breaking on April 1, we're confident there's nothing phony about this story.
"I'm building a new team going after a totally new area for Amazon. I'm hiring cloud and mobile developers and testers, program managers, and product managers," Kindel commented, immediately sending the internet into a flurry of rumors and sidelong interpretations.
Amazon phone to hedge its bets with a reasonable 4.7-inch display
According to Digitimes, so called "industry supply chain sources" have put a ruler to the Amazon Phone. They say the handset will have a 4.7-inch display, which would put it in between an iPhone 5 and a Galaxy S4 when it comes to visual real estate.
This supposed fact, combined with a rumored low asking price, suggests that Amazon is going for the casual smartphone user, one who does not want to spend a fortune and would like to be able to carry the phone in their pocket with ease.
Amazon phone will miss rumored Q2 2013 release date, still looking like a Foxconn product
It's all still the stuff of rumors, but previous rumblings pegged the Amazon Phone (or maybe Kindle Phone) as arriving in the second quarter of 2013. Now it looks as though that deadline will make a delightful whooshing noise as it blows past.
Somewhat infamous manufacturing mogul Foxconn is said to be on deck to produce the dirt cheap device. Its subsidiary Ensky Tech made the original Kindle Fire and now produces the Kindle Fire HD and the Kindle Paperwhite, so it would be no shock at all to see the two collaborate on the project.
As far as what's causing the delay, a report at Digitimes blames the "engineering verification test period due to issues related to its mobile platform," saying that the process, "has not been as smooth as expected."
This is surprising, given the great deal of experience Foxconn and its partners have in this field. It has us wondering what Amazon could have up its sleeve that's making the phone such a bother. As always, rumors are like cheap takeout; they just leaving you hungry for more.
Foxconn to manufacture Amazon phone for summer 2013 release date
This might be the most concrete rumor yet regarding the Amazon phone. Supposedly the online retail giant has inked a deal with Foxconn to manufacture its first smartphone. Industry insiders also expect a summer 2013 release.
According to the reports, the phone may also have a dirt-cheap asking price of $100-200 (around £60-120/AU$95-190). This would fall in step with Amazon's strategy with its Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Paperwhite line, devices sold at highly competitive prices in order to get customers investing in Amazon's media library.
While the involvement of Foxconn is not surprising, since the company has become a prolific manufacturer of all things electronic, it is somewhat troubling given its reputation for overworked, striking employees. Maybe the Amazon phone will be one of the first devices assembled in American Foxconn factories?
Amazon Phone rumors catch fire
Rumors of an Amazon Phone started to catch on in late 2011, when analysts began predicting the Amazon Phone's existence, despite a lack of hard evidence.
That hard evidence, by the way, still hasn't made an appearance, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning away.
Kicking things off, analyst firm CitiGroup reported that it discovered the existence of the then-unheard of Amazon Phone through its "supply chain channel checks in Asia."
Analyst Mark Mahaney led the Amazon Phone charge, proclaiming that the bookseller was in cahoots with infamous Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn to build the device.
Other analysts agreed: "A smartphone would be a logical next step for Amazon," ABI Research's Aapo Markkanen told Wired in May.
"The lock-in effect of a great content ecosystem shouldn't be under-estimated," he continued.
Bloomberg fed more fuel to the Amazon Phone fire in July, when its anonymous sources ("people with knowledge of the matter") confirmed that Amazon and Foxconn remained hard at work on the smartphone.
Further, the same report claimed that Amazon is busy hoarding as many wireless patents as possible to defend itself from the inevitable infringement suits that follow any modicum of success in the market.
Windows Phone executives board the good ship Amazon
The summer heat must have helped the Amazon Phone fires spread, as July gave birth to yet another bout of speculation when two Windows Phone vets joined Amazon.
First Brandon Watson left the Windows Phone team to become Amazon's director of Kindle cross platform, then Robert Williams, previously Windows Phone's senior director of business development, joined Amazon as its app store director.
Of course, the mere fact that the two previously worked on Windows Phone in no way proved that Amazon had brought them on to work on its own phone - but then again, it's not that far of a stretch, is it?
To further stoke the flames, it appeared toward the end of July that Amazon's innovation center - Lab 126 - had been hiring workers to develop new mobile devices that would run on wireless carriers' networks.
In other words: an Amazon Phone. Imagine that.
Amazon Phone release date
In CitiGroup's original 2011 report, the firm predicted that the Amazon Phone release date would fall in Q4 2012, though that's looking less and less likely the more time passes without a peep from Amazon.
That doesn't mean it's not going to happen, of course, but other rumors since then have been somewhat less optimistic about the Amazon Phone release date.
Less than a week after Bloomberg's report that Amazon and Foxconn still had their collective noses to the grindstone, another source (this one from Amazon's component suppliers) told the Wall Street Journal that the bookseller was already testing Amazon Phone prototypes.
That report claimed that the device could go into production during the second half of 2012, and that the Amazon phone release could fall in late 2012 or early 2013.
Amazon Phone price
From the beginning, speculators foretold that an Amazon Phone would hit the low end of the price spectrum.
In part, it's assumed that Amazon would sell the device wholesale (or maybe even at a loss) in order to further expand its digital content distribution.
Every pair of hands holding an Amazon Phone comes with eyes, ears and a wallet, after all.
CitiGroup analyst Kevin Chang said in 2011, "For a normal brand like HTC, they need to price the product at $243 to make 30 percent gross margin. If Amazon is actually willing to lose some money on the device, the price gap could be even bigger."
That means the Amazon Phone price could sink as low as $170 or even $150, though Amazon would surely make up the difference somehow - just like it does with the Kindle Fire.
Amazon Phone specs
There's been little speculation about the Amazon Phone's specific hardware features, considering there's yet to be any official word - or even a measly leaked prototype image - to go off of.
But the WSJ's source claimed that the Amazon Phone's screen size would fall somewhere between 4 inches and 5 inches, placing it right in line with top Android phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 andHTC One X.
The Amazon Phone would at least need to perform well enough to reliably stream content and be integrated with Amazon's various media and cloud services, and the better the resolution, the more attractive the device would be for streaming video.
Battery life will be another important factor, as nothing will turn the average consumer off faster than being interrupted in the middle of "Real Housewives" by a pesky low power warning.
Will the Amazon Phone run Android?
An Amazon Phone is almost dead certain to run on some variation of Android, as Google and Amazon, despite occasionally finding themselves at one another's throats, can just as often be found sitting snugly in one another's pockets.
According to some reports, the retail giant has even considered stocking Google tablets like the Nexus 7 in its stores, indicating that their rivalry can't really be all that heated.
Besides, Windows Phone is sat firmly in Nokia's camp, at least for the lifespan of Windows Phone 8 - Microsoft's not about to throw away years of build-up just to hop in bed with Amazon.
That leaves BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, who - to be fair - is rumored to be shopping the BlackBerry 10 OS around for a licensing deal.
But there's a chance BB10 will be more or less dead on arrival, and either way, an OS swap at this point would just be too risky for Amazon, who'll already be tossing the dice with a smartphone gambit in the first place.
Furthermore, Citigroup's initial Amazon Phone report from 2011 claimed that the bookseller would have to pay royalties to Microsoft, all but spelling out that the phone would be another Android device.
Source : techradar[dot]com
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