Amazon Smartphone: Online Retailer to Create Original Mobile Device in 2012?

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, November 17, 2011

Amazon might be in the process of creating its own smartphone that could hit stores by the end of 2012.

“Based on our supply chain check, we believe [Foxconn] is now jointly developing the phone with Amazon,” said Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney in a research note. “However, we believe that Amazon will pay [Foxconn] but the device and multiple components will actually be manufactured by Hon Hai’s TMS business group.”

Foxconn currently manufactures smartphones for other electronic companies, such as Apple. The company is one of the lead producers of the iPhone.

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Mahaney added that Amazon would most likely use a Te0xas Instruments OMAP 4 processor for the upcoming device along with adopting Qualcomm’s dual-mode 6 series baseband chip as well.

He also said that Amazon might attempt to undercut competitors using similar strategy to what was done with the Kindle Fire.

“If Amazon is actually willing to lose some money on the device, the price gap could be even bigger,” Mahaney said.

Other companies, such as HTC, usually need to stick high price tags on smartphones to cover production costs, but Amazon can afford to lose some money to establish its brand.

Fox News said it heard Amazon was planning to create an entire lineup of Android devices with the Kindle Fire tablet being the first.

The company is also expected to launch another tablet that will include Nvidia’s new quad-core Tegra 3 processing chip sometime next year.

The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime runs on this processor and became the first quad-core powered tablet to hit stores earlier this year.

The Kindle Fire was released earlier this week and received rave reviews from both customers and technology critics.