Mobile retailer Clove revealed today that it won't start selling the HTC One in the U.K. on March 15 as previously announced, in the process opening a Pandora's box of details about the phone's global availability.

Turns out the delay affects all global shipments - all, that is, except O2 in Germany.

"We will start fulfilling pre-order by end of March in certain markets and will roll out to more markets as we approach April," HTC said in a statement sent to TechRadar.

Clove's announcement pinned the phone's U.K. launch on March 29, and it sounds as though those who've placed pre-orders will see their phones arrive before the month runs out.

What gives?

HTC's brief statement and Clove's website-posted words gave nothing by way of explanation for the delay. The only clue we have to go on comes from Clove, signaling that the root of the issue stems from the phone maker:

"We apologise for this delay, but you will appreciate that this is out of our control," read Clove's post.

March was pegged as the target time for the One to reach a number of markets, however an exact U.S. release date was never revealed.

Investment bank KGI Securities claimed to have information that certain components of the new phone, including its signature camera module, were in short supply.

Supply issues for the camera or other parts are likely the culprit here, but we'll update this story when and if we receive official word.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Source : mobilemag[dot]com

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.

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 at 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, 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.

TechRadar's Amazon Phone wish list

We at TechRadar aren't immune to the charms of an Amazon Phone, even if it does only exist in the imaginations of analysts and tech bloggers at the moment.

That's where this wish list of Amazon Phone features came from, as well, after all.

On the list are such far-fetched notions as an at-cost Amazon Phone price point, something that's basically been assumed all along, as well as slick cloud and streaming integration, a refreshed app store, exclusive shopping discounts, and killer hardware features like NFC.

Whether any of that will actually come to fruition - or whether the Amazon truly even exists or really is just a figment of a thousand overactive imaginations - will be seen only when Amazon decides to step out of the shadows and into the firelight.

Source : techradar[dot]com

We'll be honest - we're falling over ourselves with excitement here as the Samsung Galaxy S4 unveiling gets ever closer, but we can't help but fear it's going to be somewhat of an anticlimax.

The Samsung Express has been charging through the smartphone stations over the past couple of years, but like all great masters of the rails it has to come to a halt at some point, and the launch of the Galaxy S4 may be that tipping point.

"But why now?" we hear you cry. Well, there's no question that Samsung is going to continue to innovate the technology under the hood of the S4, but there's the fear that design is getting overlooked which could kill its current dominance.

We've seen the Sony Xperia Z and HTC One launched this year, both of which explore new design paths for the firms and see the inclusion of premium materials such as toughened glass and brushed aluminium.

Is plastic still fantastic?

Samsung though looks set to keep the plastic clad chassis which has served it, admittedly well, over the past three iterations of this top-end smartphone, but times are changing and it will increasingly struggle to stand out as a premium handset.

There are a number of people who won't be phased by the plastic exterior of the handset, and some will argue the Galaxy S4 will actually benefit from this allowing for more flex and thus a higher resistance to bumps and knocks.

However the 'plastic = cheap' philosophy still stands in many people's mind and since the Samsung Galaxy S4 isn't going to cost less than its premium clad rivals (unless Samsung pulls a highly unlikely Nexus 4 price crash) it's going to feel a little sub-par in the hand over the Xperia Z, One and even the iPhone 5.

To the average consumer in store that's going to potentially make the Galaxy S4 a difficult sell as customers want the new smartphone they're spending a small fortune on to actually feel like it justifies the price.

Samsung managed to dodge this bullet with the Galaxy S2 and Galaxy S3 by overloading the handsets with various specs and features, but the competition is more fierce than ever and it's going to take more than on-paper gloating to keep hold of the top spot.

History comes a knocking

It may seem pretty unlikely that the huge market share Samsung currently enjoys in the high-end smartphone arena will disappear overnight, but don't go thinking it's immune.

Look at the iPhone. Cast your minds back to the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 and the frenzy which surrounded their launch saw the handsets heralded as game-changing and revolutionary.

Although Apple has banged out hyperbole at every subsequent iPhone launch event there's no getting away from the fact that the announcement of the iPhone 4S, and more recently the iPhone 5, have been met with a more muted response from the industry and fans alike.

While both are still excellent handsets - garnering 4.5/5 in our in-depth review process - there's been a noticeable lack of design inspiration and game changing features which left many slightly narked at the Cupertino-firms cheek of releasing more updated rather than brand new handsets.

Bye Bye Moto

Samsung will need to ensure it doesn't fall into the trap of resting on its laurels and assuming that it's now in an unassailable position - as the mighty can indeed fall.

The Motorola Razr V3 entered the mobile phone world in 2004 and blew our minds with its futuristic design and impossibly thin 13.9mm body, but then made the same thing again, and again, and again - now Motorola struggles to pique the interest of many when it quietly - almost bashfully - launches a new handset.

Hey guys, we're Moto, remember us?

We were secretly hoping the Galaxy S4 would see a new design twist from the Korean firm in an attempt to stay ahead of the game, but if the image teased by Samsung itself is anything to go by it looks like things are going to stay as they are.

While the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2 aren't exactly hideous they didn't quite capture our imagination in the same way as the Razr V3, iPhone 4 or Galaxy S2 did and we fear when it comes to the fickle world of appearance the Galaxy S4 won't be able to gain that "it phone" status.

What if?

Of course the design isn't officially confirmed yet and Samsung could still throw in some curve balls.

If the Galaxy S4 does turn out to sport premium materials than this argument gets turned on its head, but from the vast swath of rumours we've sifted through that seems highly unlikely.

There's no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will sell by the bucket load, we just fear it won't be as many buckets as Samsung is hoping for and 2013 could well be the year it sees its lead dramatically shortened by an ever-improving chasing pack.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Three and EE will both be stocking the next Samsung handset, with pre-registration already going live for the former.

While not naming the actual handset, Three stated: "The latest flagship addition to the popular Galaxy range of mobile devices will be revealed to the world in New York on March 14th."

There's no information beyond that, and sadly no Galaxy S4 price or release date – but then again, we'd be gobsmacked if there had been. You can pre-register with Three here.

EE Squared

EE has joined the party too, but more cryptically – it's posted a picture to its Twitter feed of the banner in Times Square.

It's not an actual confirmation, but there's no way the network would be talking up the next flagship handset otherwise.

EE also upped the crypticity with this response to our question as to whether it will have a pre-registration page: "As the only UK network to offer superfast 4G, we regularly introduce new handsets to our range, to provide our customers with a choice of the latest high end smartphones"

Let's be honest here: if any of the networks DON'T take the Samsung Galaxy S4 it will be more of a story. But hey – it's launch week, so we can't help but bring you every juicy morsel ahead of our coverage of the launch event itself.

Source : techradar[dot]com