Amazon insiders say the company is looking forward to expand its business into a new and highly competitive market. After the Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon is said to release a smartphone of its own.
Bloomberg reports Apple is in for tight competition. Amazon is said to have plans to launch a smartphone of its own. And not just any kind of smartphone. It will be a device particularly designed to target Apple’s market share. Two insiders say the Amazon smartphone will run on Google’s Android and will be assembled by Foxconn, the same company that’s been Apple’s own partner for a long time now.
But rumors about Amazon releasing a smartphone aren’t all that new. It looks like Citigroup’s analyst Mark Mahaney’s report in November last year was right as sources with Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. confirm the report.
In November 2011, Mark Mahaney wrote: “Based on our supply chain check, we believe FIH [Foxconn] is now jointly developing the phone with Amazon”. The Foxconn insider said the Chinese company is now working with Amazon on the said device and it looks like the company is on a shopping spree for wireless technology patents.
Buying patents has become a priority for Amazon ever since it brought Matt Gordon from Intellectual Ventures Management LLC. Truth be told in the IT business not owning enough patents is a sure fire way to be dragged through courts all over the world. And when the aim is to target Apple, patent warfare is always a possibility.
In a statement to Wired this May, ABI Research Analyst Aapo Markkanen talked about something he called the Amazon ecosystem. It’s the company’s way of making diverse offerings tailored to customer’s habits.
Markkanen added it’s very possible Amazon’s ecosystem will give it a huge edge in the smartphone market. It’s very likely Amazon could sell its smartphone at a very subsidized price, something that big phone carriers and manufacturers can’t really do.
“Given that Amazon’s strategy is to treat devices as a content hub rather than a standalone product, it’s pretty likely that price points for the smartphone would be very aggressive” he said.
