Retail giant Amazon.com, Inc. is reportedly planning to unveil its very own smartphone to challenge mobile device market leader Apple, sources of Bloomberg said.
Amazon announced on Twitter Wednesday that Amazon CEO Jeff Bozos would introduce the company's latest product at a June 18 event in Seattle. The tweet included a picture of a sleek device in black with Amazon's name on it. There was also a YouTube video and website post released.
According to Reuters, the 50-second YouTube video showed people looking at something and giving comments such as "It's very real-life," and "I don't know how you guys do it."
Amazon spokeswoman, Mary Osako, refused to comment about the product preview when asked by Bloomberg.
Rumors about Amazon joining the smartphone bandwagon initially came out in May 2013. Spectators wagered that the company would be offering a "free" smartphone featuring a 3D-like display with hologram images, retina-tracking technology that can sense users' eye movements, and automatic camera zoom and manipulation. The lineup hinted that the smartphone would be optimized for gaming.
Analysts predicted that Amazon and Apple would compete against each other in the market for tablets and online entertainment once the device comes out. The retailer giant finally acknowledged the promising growth of the mobile market as users increasingly do their computing on the go, but there was more to it.
"Amazon's play here isn't to make a ton of money off smartphone sales; it's to get people to spend more money with Amazon as a whole," said Jan Dawson, a technology analyst from Jackdsaw, to Bloomberg.
Amazon needed to expand its hardware devices line to support its entry into the digital books, songs, and movie market. Having its own smartphone would complete the line, which curently includes the Kindle e-reader, Kindle Fire tablets, and a $99 Fire TV introduced in April.
