SAN MATEO, Calif. — Amazon.com is ready to join the smartphone wars with Apple, Samsung Electronics and others in the second half of this year, with a new handset of its own.
The e-commerce powerhouse has been demonstrating versions of the phone to developers in its hometown Seattle and San Francisco recently, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources.
Amazon intends to announce the phone by July and begin shipping phones by the end of September, according to the report. USA TODAY could not independently confirm the report.
The Amazon phone will come with a screen capable of displaying seemingly 3-D images without special glasses, the report said. This would give Amazon a competitive edge in what is a crowded market.
Amazon did not respond immediately to an e-mail message for comment.
The company made other hardware news this month when it entered the streaming video set-top box market with the $99 Amazon Fire TV.
An Amazon phone has long been rumored. Last fall, when speculation swirled that it might offer a free phone with or without a contract, the company told USA TODAY that if and when it did launch a phone it would not be free.
Source : http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/11/report-of-a-new-amazon-smartphone-to-debut-in-june/7614527/
