“Amazon.com Inc. is preparing to release a smartphone in the second half of this year, according to people briefed on the company’s plans, part of a broad push into hardware that would pit it against Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.,” Greg Bensinger and Evelyn M. Rusli report for The Wall Street Journal. “The retailer has been demonstrating versions of the handset to developers in San Francisco and its hometown Seattle in recent weeks, these people said. People briefed on the company’s plans have been told that Amazon aims to announce the phone by the end of June and begin shipping phones by the end of September, ahead of the holiday shopping season.”
“The people said Amazon hopes to distinguish its phone in a crowded market with a screen capable of displaying seemingly three-dimensional images without special glasses, these people said,” Bensinger and Rusli report. “They said the phone would employ retina-tracking technology embedded in four front-facing cameras, or sensors, to make some images appear to be 3-D, similar to a hologram, the people said.”
“Amazon has told one of its suppliers it is anticipating mass production of the device later this month, with an initial order of 600,000 units, according to a person briefed on the plans,” Bensinger and Rusli report. “The company has lined up two display makers for the smartphone, including Japan Display Inc., the maker of displays for Apple’s iPhone 5C and 5S, according to another person familiar with the details.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Gimmick. Amazon should include a package of Dramamine with each purchase.