Amazon's First Phone May Be AT&T Exclusive

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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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Kevin Parrish
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bemused_fred
    *1 year laters*

    "Amazon's 3d smartphone sells 0 units, AT&T shocked as to why."
    Reply
  • Jake Hall
    That's a good, first mistake to make
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    i've always thought that phones and tablets were perfect for headtracking 3d, as headtracking 3d only works when one person is looking at the device. check out this video of a guy who now works for google i believe:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw&feature=kp
    Reply
  • southernshark
    I was 1/2 looking forward to this phone, assuming it would be a low cost / high feature unlocked phone. But there is no way I would touch this steaming pile of crapola.
    Reply
  • oxiide
    I was 1/2 looking forward to this phone, assuming it would be a low cost / high feature unlocked phone. But there is no way I would touch this steaming pile of crapola.
    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?
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    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.

    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.
    Reply
  • ubercake
    Limiting yourself to a single carrier is a mistake as it limits your customer base. I am considering an Amazon phone, but I definitely won't switch over to ATT for anything.
    Reply
  • kawininjazx
    This could be a successful phone, people who love their Kindles and do everything on Amazon will enjoy it. If you can get the phone for $249 new or free with a contract, it would be a decent deal if you are already tied to amazon. They have a decent app store, it's probably better than the Windows Store.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    13530090 said:
    Limiting yourself to a single carrier is a mistake as it limits your customer base. I am considering an Amazon phone, but I definitely won't switch over to ATT for anything.

    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.
    Reply
  • rishiswaz
    To get a flagship phone for less than 300 dollars you need carrier subsides, you get those on contracts and carrier locked phones. Now you pick either shelling out 400-600 dollars on base models of the flagship phones, or shelling out maybe 2 or 3 hundred and keeping it, along with your service for a few years. If you have the money to throw away on an unlocked phone more power to you, go for it; it does not hover imply that the US mobile market is broken.
    Reply