When Amazon released the Kindle Fire tablet, everybody was always a bit curious about whether Amazon would eventually release a smartphone as the next logical step. As it turns out, the company does has a smartphone going through some private testing at the moment, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The parts suppliers who prefer to remain anonymous say that Amazon is in fact ramping up to begin mass production of these — we’ll say Kindle phones — for late this year or early next year. The display on the device is said to be between 4 and 5 inches diagonally, on par with the latest Android smartphones. The larger display might be best for Amazon’s large number of customers who use its electronic devices primarily for reading.
The iPhone’s 3.5-inch display isn’t ideal for reading for long periods of time, but WSJ supports rumors that it too will get a large display in the upcoming model due this fall.
One important factor left out of the report is the price — what will Amazon charge for a smartphone? The Kindle Fire is already $199, making it one of the cheapest tablets on the market today. A smartphone with a contract selling for the same price would look a bit absurd. Amazon is already perfectly comfortable selling hardware with little to no profit margins in order to make up for it later by selling content from the Amazon store, so its possible the company could take the same approach with a future handset.
[via WSJ]