After the glowing reviews of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, the next logical step for the online retailer would be to make a smartphone and a loose-lipped analyst from Citigroup has stated he thinks it will happen around this time next year.
In a research note, CitiGroup’s Mark Mahaney, said: “We believe an Amazon Smartphone will be launched in Q4 2012,” based on “supply chain channel checks in Asia.”
According to the report, the Amazon phone would come with a dual-core OMAP processor from Texas Instruments, and would cost from $150 to $170.
We must take this rumour with a pinch of the white stuff – “supply chain checks” are bottom of the barrel for tech rumors, but if the Fire is a massive hit, why wouldn’t they do a phone?
Still, CitiGroup’s Mahaney isn’t the only one who reckons a Kindle Phone would be a good idea. TIME‘s own Harry McCracken, in a blog post earlier this week, postulated the idea: “I wondered why no company has taken up the challenge of building…well, the iPhone of Android phones. Something that’s elegant, approachable, uncluttered, and respectful of the consumer’s intelligence. Any bundled services would need to be beautifully integrated rather than just shoveled onto the phone indiscriminately, as the apps on Android handsets often are.
“And then it hit me: Why not Amazon?”
With the arrival of the Fire, Amazon has already done the heavy lifting with the design of the stripped down Android OS, and they already sell phones in the US on all four networks so the distribution infrastructure would already be in place.
The Kindle Phone is a natural progression for Amazon, with the goal of syncing your music, books, movies and apps across multiple devices.
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