14 DAY TRIAL // This is not the first time we hear about Amazon wanting to enter the smartphone market, so take it with a grain of salt even if it comes from a reliable source.
If Amazon indeed plans to launch its own mobile phone in the next couple of month then it should be really revolutionary given the fact the online retailer is rumored to be developing this device for years.
According to Wall Street Journal, citing sources that have been informed on the company's plans, Amazon is expected to announce its own smartphone in the first half of the year.
This means that the Amazon or Kindle phone should go official by June at the latest. The same sources claim this device will go on sale sometime in September.
There aren't many details on how Amazon's smartphone may look like or what hardware it will embed under the hood, but putting together some of pieces of information that leaked over the last couple of months we can get a picture of what the online retailer plans on pushing onto the market.
The latest hearsay claimed the Amazon phone would be packed with several cameras and a dozens of sensors. But the main selling point, price-wise aside, would be the 3D display.
Unlike some other 3D devices already available on the market, users won't need 3D glasses to be able to get the best out of the phone's display.
Sources familiar with the matter say Amazon's smartphone will integrate retina-tracking technology which will be “embedded in four front-facing cameras” in order to accomplish the desired 3D effect.
Information on the technology behind Amazon smartphone's display emerged last year when patents explaining how the system works were spotted online.
Other than that we don't know much about the online retailer's handset, though we can safely suspect that it will replace Google Play Store with its own Amazon Appstore, if it will be based on Android operating system.
And for the time being, Android is the only platform that would make sense for an Amazon smartphone. Given the fact that Amazon Appstore has more than 200,000 app and games, there's no doubt about it that the online retailer will want to keep monetize it through its own mobile device.
We also expect the Amazon smartphone to be launched globally, but initial release may be limited to United States and perhaps a few other countries. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.