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New Rumor: Amazon is Working on a Smartphone

Now that we know that Amazon has a front-lighted Kindle on the way, it’s time to start passing around rumors of their next product. A Chinese tech blog is reporting that Amazon has a smartphone in the works.  According to their source, an exec with Shanda Interactive, the Kindle Phone could very likely hit the market in late 2012 with a retail of around $150.

Just for my own personal amusement, I’m calling it the Amazon Blaze.

The source then goes on to speculate that the Blaze is going to feature a 4.3″ Sharp  screen with qHD resolution (960×540). It’s going to be running on a 1GHz dual core CPU. The OS isn’t mentioned, but I think there’s a better than even chance it could be running Windows Phone, and if that doesn’t work out then it might run iOS.

There’s no manufacturer mentioned other than vague hints that a Shenzhen OEM is involved, but Ericsson is being tossed around as the development partner. That is certainly  not impossible, and it is no less implausible than any other part of this rumor.

P.S. The Blaze is the name of a fictional Amazon phone that Android Police invented last year.  I find it doubly amusing that life imitates art.

source

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Comments


iharley May 15, 2012 um 8:24 pm

Did your source mention iOS, or are you being facetious? There’s no way I can see Apple licensing iOS to Amazon, or anyone else for that matter.

Nate Hoffelder May 15, 2012 um 8:33 pm

I’m being absurd.


Stephen May 15, 2012 um 10:53 pm

Good one on the OS, Nate! Will be interesting to see how this plays out. If Amazon does release a phone I could see it dominating the Android smartphone market the way the Fire has done for Android tablets. Interesting how they are going the opposite route the Apple did but ending in the same place with a hardware and software/appstore/service that are tightly integrated. Now they just need an Amazon store…..


Simon May 15, 2012 um 11:24 pm

I wonder if Apple will end up losing to Amazon, just as it lost to Windows in the PC era. The Mac/Iphone might be better technology, but in the end just-good-enough-ness and ubiquity win out.

Amazon does far more than sell digital products. In the US, at least, they sell pretty much everything. If almost all shopping goes eventually digital, the Amazon ecosystem might end up dominating.

Though Google (and it looks like Facebook soon) have their own mobile/digital ecosystems, so perhaps the market won’t be swallowed completely by just one player.

To be sure, these are wild predictions; but interesting to think about.


Gertjan May 16, 2012 um 5:48 am

Coincidentally, Blaze is also the name of TIs reference platform for smartphones. TI worked with Amazon on the Fire tablet. Fantasy might not be too far off from reality.


Amazon Once Again Working on a Smartphone – The Digital Reader July 5, 2012 um 11:51 pm

[…] Hoffelder · No Comments · Amazon, hardware rumors, Rumors A new variation of the Amazon Blaze rumor is upon us. The last time I covered this rumor, my info came from an unsubstantiated Chinese […]


Rumor: Amazon's Smartphone Entering Production in June? | The Digital Reader January 28, 2016 um 10:22 am

[…] the record. this rumor has been circulating in one form or another since May 2012, and it keeps cropping up again every few months. I don't believe today's rumor any more than I […]


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