An Amazon smartphone has been in the rumor mill for over a year, and now the world finally has images of the alleged device unmasked. Mobile phone blog BGR has published an image of the alleged device, below.
The Amazon phone looks like a cross between an iPhone and one of Samsung’s Galaxy S phones, except with a wider bezel around the display, bottom facing speakers, and sides that appear to be less glossy than the back, to allow for an easier grip.
According to rumors, the phone is going to have a 4.7-inch 720 x 1,028 pixel display, quad-core Snapdragon processor, and 2 GB of RAM, which positions it in between mid-level and top-range smartphones.
Head tracking and tilt features
In an earlier story last week, BGR reports that the Amazon phone will sport infrared cameras that can track your head movements — enabling unique 3D features for gaming or media — plus tilt features for navigating menus or maps without touching the display. BGR says Amazon’s phone will also have built-in optical character recognition (OCR) software for transcribing or translating text.
Although the display pictured here looks to have Windows Phone like tiles, an Amazon phone will definitely run Google Android — probably similar to the heavily skinned version of Android 4.4 KitKat that Amazon uses in its Kindle Fire tablets.
Prime Data plan, cut-throat pricing
We would expect the Amazon phone to be priced lower than similar handsets– a tactic Amazon uses for its Kindle tablets — with the idea that users will use their device to spend a lot of money on Amazon products and services. BGR reports that the e-tailer may even offer a competitive data plan — at least in the US — that piggybacks on a major network such as AT&T. The data plan might offer a certain amount of Prime video and music streaming free of charge — perhaps without an annual subscription to the company’s Amazon Prime service.
So far, Amazon has brushed off rumors about the phone, and the company hasn’t announced any product launch events. However according to sources talking to BGR and The Wall Street Journal, we can expect a product announcement in the third quarter — and this makes sense if Amazon wants to sell the phone in time for back-to-school sales this August. Stay tuned.
