Amazon phone to take on low-cost devices?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Amazon seems to be silently entering the highly competitive smartphone market. According to Bloomberg, it is working with Foxconn to develop a smartphone.

Amazon certainly has the infrastructure to enter the cellphone market with its appstore and its smartphone would compete with low-cost phones.

Unarguably, Amazon is a company to reckon with in e-book reader and tablets, however the success of Kindle Fire cannot be a benchmark for phones too. It cannot be ignored that Amazon has always had the advantage of price. Neither the price nor specifications of the phone have been confirmed.

The Kindle Fire’s price, less than half of Apple’s cheapest iPad, helped Amazon grab the No. 2 spot in the tablet market behind Apple when the Fire was launched. But Amazon's present prospects aren't too bright. The Amazon Kindle’s ranking in the tablet industry has dropped to third, with Samsung taking the second place.

According to IDC, Amazon.com Inc lost share in the tablet market in the first quarter of 2012 as Kindle Fire sales slumped. Its shares dipped to 4 pc from 17 pc in December. On a optimistic note, Kindle sales normally shoot up during December as they are mostly bought as gifts.

According to China Times, Amazon is fast-tracking the production of its next-generation Kindle Fire. It is to be seen which one will tumble out first: Phone or the Fire?