Amazon Rumored To Be Prepping Smartphone For September Launch
Rumors have a tendency to come and go, that is unless you're talking about Amazon's supposed plans to launch its own brand smartphone. That bit of water cooler talk is a subject that just won't go away, and at some point, Amazon should do the Internet a solid and either debunk the rumors outright, or release a smartphone. According to latest chatter, Amazon's going with the latter.
Citing "people briefed on the company's plans," The Wall Street Journal says Amazon is planning to launch a smartphone in the second half of this year. Apparently Amazon has already begun demonstrating the handset to developers in San Francisco and Seattle, and will announce a final product by the end of June. If everything goes to plan, the Fire Phone, or whatever Amazon ends up calling it, will ship out by the end of the September, just ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets are popular. Could an Amazon smartphone duplicate that kind of success?
It's a crowded market that Amazon would be jumping into, and to stand out from the competition, Amazon is reportedly looking at glasses-free 3D technology. To create 3D images without the need for special glasses, the phone would use retina-tracking technology embedded in four front-facing cameras.
Though its' a crowded field, Amazon has shown a willingness to jump into competitive hardware categories. The company's Kindle Fire line helped popularize smaller size tablets (compared to Apple's 9.7-inch iPad) and more recently, Amazon launched a set-top box called Fire TV.
Citing "people briefed on the company's plans," The Wall Street Journal says Amazon is planning to launch a smartphone in the second half of this year. Apparently Amazon has already begun demonstrating the handset to developers in San Francisco and Seattle, and will announce a final product by the end of June. If everything goes to plan, the Fire Phone, or whatever Amazon ends up calling it, will ship out by the end of the September, just ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets are popular. Could an Amazon smartphone duplicate that kind of success?
It's a crowded market that Amazon would be jumping into, and to stand out from the competition, Amazon is reportedly looking at glasses-free 3D technology. To create 3D images without the need for special glasses, the phone would use retina-tracking technology embedded in four front-facing cameras.
Though its' a crowded field, Amazon has shown a willingness to jump into competitive hardware categories. The company's Kindle Fire line helped popularize smaller size tablets (compared to Apple's 9.7-inch iPad) and more recently, Amazon launched a set-top box called Fire TV.
