Will Amazon’s smartphone be an iPhone killer?

LONDON — Amazon is due to hold an event later today, when it is widely expected to launch its first smartphone. However, can the Internet retailer become a serious contender in the already-crowded mobile market?

Speculation has been growing for some time around Amazon’s plans to release a smartphone. This comes in the wake of several hardware launches over the past year, including those of the Fire TV streaming box and Kindle Fire tablets.

Leaked photos and details suggest the forthcoming smartphone will have a holographic 3D interface, powered by four infrared cameras situated in each of the four corners on the face of the device.

The cameras are used to track the position of the user’s face and eyes in relation to the phone’s display, allowing Amazon’s software to make constant adjustments to the positioning of elements on the screen.

Other rumoured features include a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM and a heavily customised version of Google’s Android operating system, similar to the version that powers Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets.

The phone’s display will measure 4.7 inches diagonally and have comparatively low pixel density, featuring a 720p HD resolution, lower than the 1,080p HD resolution of many rival devices.

“Let’s face it. Despite the great ecosystem war with Apple or Google,Amazon is certainly not in a position to become a global player in the very competitive and maturing smartphone market,” said Mr Thomas Husson, an analyst at Forrester.

Mr James McQuivey, another Forrester analyst, said Amazon almost certainly has proof that getting its Kindle Fire tablets into consumer hands lifts long-term purchases and probably drives up the number of categories those consumers buy from.

“Amazon cares about phones only as a means to a digital-relationship end; a way to make sure customers think of the company not only a few times a month or even a few times a week, but dozens of times a day,” he said.

However, tech analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said launching a smartphone is unlikely to have a huge effect on Amazon’s retail or media businesses.

“Maybe, it will introduce some product-image-recognition technology that helps you buy a similar product, say, at a store with one click on Amazon — but the truth is there is very little friction to buying on Amazon even on other mobile devices now,” he said.

“Media consumption generally is reduced as screen sizes get smaller. It (Amazon) appears to be lumping music into Prime now and that is a media format that is nicely suited to the phone, but music isn’t a growing business either.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH