ARN

Amazon smartphone coming in late 2012, analyst says

Citigroup says the phone might cost less than $200

Amazon is working on a smartphone to be released in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a Citigroup analyst quoted by All Things D .

Amazon officials did not respond to a request to comment.

Citigroup researcher Mark Mahaney wrote: "Based on our supply chain channel checks in Asia ... we believe an Amazon Smartphone will be launched in 4Q12."

The note added that Citigroup believes the Amazon smartphone will run the Texas Instrument OMAP 4 processor and is likely to have a dual-mode radio from Qualcomm.

Citigroup even suggested the device would cost $150 to $170 to build, and might be sold for about that amount. Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire tablet at $199, which is $10 less than one research firm determined was the $210 cost of building the device. The Kindle Fire runs an Amazon-customized version of Android 2.3, and Citigroup suggests the phone would also run Android.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .

Read more about smartphones in Computerworld's Smartphones Topic Center.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: Amazon, Qualcomm, Topic
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the ARN comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: citigroup, consumer electronics, hardware, hardware systems, mobile, Mobile and Wireless, Mobile OSes, qualcomm, smartphones, twitter
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events.
ARN Distributor Directory
Find distributors by name | vendor | location
Channel Deals
/deals/aca-pacific/435_fujifilm-lto-10-for-10-promotion-ends-june-30t
ACA Pacific

Fujifilm LTO 10 For 10 Promotion. Ends June 30th, 2012.

More details »
ARN Vendor Directory
Find vendors by name | category

iAsset is a channel management ecosystem that automates all major aspects of the entire sales,marketing and service process, including data tracking, integrated learning, knowledge management and product lifecycle management.