Amazon Kindle Smartphone Delayed Over Design Issues

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The Kindle smartphone is still in the engineering verification test phase, claims supply chain.

Back in December, reports emerged claiming that Amazon had placed an order with Foxconn for five million units of a Kindle-branded smartphone. Sources said that Foxconn will be working with touch panel makers Japan Display and Young Fast Optoelectronics to supply parts for the Kindle smartphone. It was expected to arrive by the middle of 2013, and cost between $100 and $200 USD.

Then in February, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said that the device would be delayed, basing his info on industry-related "checks". Now DigiTimes is painting a similar picture, quoting sources within the flat panel supply chain who say that production hasn't been as smooth as expected, thus the smartphone could suffer the rumored delay.

According to the sources, Amazon originally planned to launch the Kindle phone in the second quarter of 2013. However the phone still resides in the engineering verification test (EVT) period due to issues related to its "mobile platform", presumably the Kindle OS. It's believed that Amazon is again using a modified (forked) version of Android as seen with the Kindle tablets to stay consistent.

The DigiTimes sources also mentioned that development is being handled by Foxconn subsidiary Ensky Tech, the same group that's responsible for Amazon's Kindle e-readers and tablets. Ensky was originally slated to enter the production verification test (PVT) phase in 1Q13, followed by mass production in 2Q13. But now Ensky will unlikely hit volume production until June, sources said.

Rumors of an Amazon smartphone have been around for a while. The device was expected to be among the latest batch of Kindle Fire tablet refreshes last fall, but that never happened. It was presumed that Amazon was waiting to tackle Microsoft's own Surface-branded offering until the first report of delays began to surface.

To this day, Amazon has not confirmed the device, but it hasn't denied its existence either. "I agree that there are a bunch of rumors that we might do a phone," Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos told Charlie Rose in November. "You'll just have to wait and see."

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Kevin Parrish
4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tical2399
    Back in December 2013, reports emerged claiming that Amazon had placed an order with Foxconn for five million units of a Kindle-branded smartphone. Is this some kinda article from the future?
    Reply
  • ddpruitt
    Mind if I borrow the Delorean and return it to you last week?
    Reply
  • lindethier
    I don't see why Amazon would want to get into the smartphone business. They already provide most of their big name apps across many of the different mobile operating systems, so I don't see what they would provide that would set them apart from the rest. Why would they want the additional costs associated with providing support for them?
    Reply
  • teh_chem
    I got a kindle fire HD--I was excited about finally having proper access to Amazon Prime streaming/videos on my tablet device, as well as the nice integration of text books with audio books. But even after having that, I would still not say that it's worth it... I don't really care about the "in your face" advertisements that most people seem to be vehemently against. But the device gets HORRIBLY laggy. Something is definitely up with their OS software that resides on top of ICS, because I see no reason to think that with the relatively simple things this tablet allows you to do, why there should be such slowdowns (the mail app is the worst, but it's generally system-wide).

    That being said, after my experiences with the KFHD, and how the abilities of the user are sequestered, I would not be interested in any sort of amazon smartphone if it behaves similarly to their tablets.

    lindethierI don't see why Amazon would want to get into the smartphone business. They already provide most of their big name apps across many of the different mobile operating systems, so I don't see what they would provide that would set them apart from the rest. Why would they want the additional costs associated with providing support for them?Probably because they want access to a higher-level of user habits and behaviors. Unless you do something from within one of their apps (or on one of their main browser websites), they don't have access to that bit of user info from you. Having a phone that is "purely" theirs would essentially give them access to ALL of the user's habits, so they can have a more-complete ad-targeting platform.
    Reply