Amazon's First Phone May Be AT&T Exclusive
Sources have confirmed that Amazon's phone will be an AT&T exclusive.
A group of unnamed individuals have confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that Amazon's Kindle-branded smartphone, set to be revealed on Wednesday, will be an AT&T exclusive for the foreseeable future. AT&T already provides wireless services to Amazon's e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets, so the news isn't all that surprising.
AT&T went down this exclusivity road before with the Apple iPhone back in 2007. The company held on to the phone for more than three years, giving it a competitive edge over rivals Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint. If the Kindle phone changes the smartphone landscape just as the first iPhone did, then AT&T may see another huge spike in sales and new subscriptions within the next few months.
Sources claim that Amazon's phone will have a screen that displays 3D content without the need for special glasses. This will be accomplished by using a camera mounted at each corner of the screen. Using retina tracking technology, these cameras will track the user's face so that the 3D imagery stays correct no matter how he/she is looking at the phone.
Amazon's phone is expected to feature a 4.7-inch IPS screen powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, 2 GB of RAM, and Amazon's Android-based Fire OS 3.0 "Mojito" platform. Customers will have access to more than 240,000 apps from the Amazon Appstore, and possibly digital content that won't count against the user's mobile data limit.
In addition to the 3D aspect, sources previously said that the new phone will support tilt gestures. By tilting the handset in different directions, the phone will render additional information without the user having to touch anything. Amazon wants users to interact with the phone's display with just one hand, and without having to touch the screen.
Whether the 3D aspect is just a gimmick or a smartphone game changer remains to be seen. However, we're pretty sure that Amazon is launching its very first smartphone on Wednesday, as the company let it slip in a recent teaser video. Based on the feedback shown in the clip, Amazon has created something quite unique.
Would you use a 3D phone?
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"Amazon's 3d smartphone sells 0 units, AT&T shocked as to why."
"Amazon's 3d smartphone sells 0 units, AT&T shocked as to why."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw&feature=kp
You can't even use Google Play store on Kindle devices unless you root it. What on earth made you assume Amazon would reverse years of tradition and build a device for anything other than consuming Amazon content?
US mobile market is BROKEN. This wouldn't happen in many other countries since overwhelming majority of phones are sold unlocked. You know, so you can choose what carrier to go with (if any). Vote with your wallet, Americans, buy unlocked only.
Yeah I agree, Amazon isn't Apple. Apple could get away with that back in the days of the first smart phones, but there's no manufacturer that could get away with exclusivity in this day and age. You'd lose way too much market share for it to be an effective game changer.
^This. After the experience I had with 'U-verse' never again will I go with AT&T for anything...
^This. After the experience I had with 'U-verse' never again will I go with AT&T for anything...
My experience with Amazon has been great, but I gave up on ATT based on their terrible customer service from back in the land line days when there wasn't much phone service competition. I have an aversion to the company altogether.