14 DAY TRIAL // The Amazon smartphone is starting to look like Apple's tablet before the iPad was introduced. There have been more rumors about it than the Facebook phone and as many disappointments.
The latest seemed solid enough, at least part of it, namely that Amazon was to launch a phone this year and offer it for free, even without a contract.
But that isn't the case. In a rare denial, Amazon has stated that it's not launching any phone this year. Even more interestingly, it mentioned that, were it to launch a phone, whenever that may be, it wouldn't give it away for free.
That puts a damper on the rumors, but only slightly, since it confirms that the company is working on the device – the first time Amazon has said anything concrete about it. Obviously, the company would not provide any other details.
It hasn't been much of a secret that Amazon had been at least toying with the idea of a smartphone, and now we have confirmation.
When the phone does land (maybe next year), you can expect it to be quite cheap, but not free.
Amazon has been great at shaving prices to their bare minimum. Its e-readers and tablets are among the cheapest on the market, for what they offer, but they aren't free.
Amazon is able to offer the devices on the cheap because it makes up the difference by selling more books, movies, music, and so on, to the people who buy the tablets or e-readers.
But those sales aren't enough to offset the build price of a smartphone, even a cheap one, even if Amazon has been more than willing to lose money to gain market share in the past. What's more, people don't use their smartphones like their tablets, spending less time with books or movies, meaning the company would make less from a phone than from the other devices.