Amazon smartphone with 3D interface coming on June 18

[mmadhankumar]

A report last month in The Wall Street Journal said that Amazon is planning to release a smartphone has prompted industry analysts and technology blogs to muse about what the device might offer.

Amazon hasn’t confirmed what the smartphone would look like. Introducing such a device would be tough in a crowded market dominated by Apple and Samsung. Even so, innovations like the Kindle Fire and Prime membership program demonstrate that the online retailing giant has a knack for using its massive size and marketing budget to capitalize on gaps in the marketplace. Unconfirmed reports say the phone could have a 3-D interface and multiple front-facing cameras.

Here’s a look at five features technology experts believe Amazon might include on its smartphone.

3-D shopping
A 3-D interface doesn’t require special glasses could have a lot of uses. For example, when you’re shopping online, you could pull up a 3-D image of sneakers or a jacket and see all of the features easier, suggests Bill Menezes, principal research analyst at Gartner. Another possibility: you could scan your living room to make a 3-D rendering. Then, when you’re out furniture shopping, take a picture and digitally insert the product into the rendering to see if it fits.

“You could see ‘Oh that’s how that purple couch looks in the bedroom, I think I’ll buy it,’ and you avoid buyer’s remorse,” says Ramon Llamas, research manager of research firm IDC’s mobile phones team.


Enhanced games
Amazon is rapidly expanding into the gaming arena with its Amazon Game Studio and video game offerings on its new streaming device, Amazon Fire TV. “A phone could be a way to help them potentially push more on the game front,” says CRT Capital analyst Neil Doshi.

The phone’s purported 3-D interface could be a way to offer a more robust gaming experience.


Seamless grocery shopping
Amazon has been testing a Wi-Fi wand called Amazon Dash that simplifies barcode scanning. Such capabilities could be included in the Amazon phone to improve on current barcode scanning apps. Combine that with Amazon’s same-day grocery service Amazon Fresh, currently in testing in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and grocery shopping could be drastically simplified. Rather than dragging a shopping cart through aisles —or even scrolling through a list of products online— a quick wave of the phone in your pantry could have all your groceries at your doorstep within hours.

“It’s an opportunity to continue to tie users into the Amazon ecosystem,” Doshi says.


Free streaming video
IDC’s Llamas suggests one of the phone’s selling points could be a free ad-supported version of Amazon’s current instant Video service, which is included in the $99-per-year Prime membership. The hypothetical service could be viewed on the phone, a Kindle or on Amazon’s Fire TV but not elsewhere like Xbox or Roku, he says, which could be a selling point for the phone.


Competitive pricing
Menezes at Gartner speculates that the phone could be offered on different price tiers. One tier could be a one-time payment for the phone that offers Amazon’s apps and services but a limited number of other features. A higher price tier could feature a monthly bill and a phone with more bells and whistles.

It’s difficult to be competitive on price in the cutthroat phone market. But as Amazon has shown with its tablets, the company is willing to deliver high-quality hardware at a loss in order to undercut competitors like Apple and put its devices in the hands of people who will use them to buy Amazon’s goods and services.


Amazon Prime music
Amazon has also known to be working on a music streaming app to compete with the likes of Apple, Google and Spotify. Specualtion is that this music streaming service would not have entire catalogue of songs from record label majors, but instead Amazon is going to cut a deal for older popular music initially, with more recent material added later. This is the same strategy the company used for HBO shows.

Amazon smartphone with 3D interface coming on June 18: What we know so far - Tech2

 

[jayanji]

The smartphone campaigning is in full swing. Amazon announced two days before its device launch event that its proprietary Appstore has nearly tripled its offerings year-over-year.

The Amazon Appstore now boasts 240,000 applications and games, is available in nearly 200 countries and across numerous devices. A smartphone is never mentioned in the release, but you can connect the dots.
Developers are also doing quite well for themselves in making Kindle Fire money, with 65% of those surveyed saying the total take in was equal to or better than other platforms (*cough* iOS and Android *cough*). The survey was sponsored by Amazon, so take its results as you will.
Amazon's reason behind the announcement? It wants you to know its phone won't be an app-less piece of plastic and developers, you know you want to make apps and games for it, right?

 

[jayanji]

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's newest mobile device, a smartphone that may sport a 3D screen, is the retailer's latest attempt to exert its influence over the way consumers shop online.

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos will preside over a mystery launch on Wednesday near its Seattle campus. Industry observers predict the arrival of a long-rumored smartphone after years of development.

It is unclear if a 3D display, as widely reported, is enough to help the new entree stand out in a crowded field dominated by Apple Inc's seven-year-old iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Galaxy devices. Three-quarters of U.S. consumers online already own a smartphone, according to online data tracking service comScore.

But its introduction reflects how smartphones and tablets are fast becoming how many consumers view and buy items online. Mobile commerce grew at almost twice the rate of online retail during the first quarter, according to comScore.
Analysts said Amazon has more opportunities outside the United States. Only 30 percent of the 5.2 billion phones on the market are smartphones, Topeka Capital Markets analyst Victor Anthony said in a June 5 research note.

"As the world shifts toward mobile, how do you make sure Amazon is front and center?" Jefferson Wang, senior partner at IBB Consulting, said in an interview.

Two sources have said the device contains 3D features visible to the eye without special glasses. Analysts expect Amazon's Prime membership program, which offers features such as movie streaming and two-day delivery, to be tied to the phone.
A phone would represent yet another new area for Amazon, which got its start selling books and has since expanded into everything from original television shows to grocery delivery. It could also boost adoption of an Amazon payments platform.

 

[jayanji]

Amazon fire