Once the Amazon Kindle eReaders got up and running and reached epic levels of popularity, it did not take long before Amazon smartphone rumors began to develop. The Blogosphere in tech circles is nothing if not rumor-centric, and all kinds of guesses about a possible Kindle phone have been flying around the virtual world the past couple of years. However, for many reasons, the recent discussion online about a possible Amazon Kindle phone launching this summer seems to be significant.
It seems logical that any Kindle phone would mesh comfortably alongside the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD tablet lineup, and some actual details of what would be one of the most highly anticipated smartphone releases of the year have emerged. The Kindle Fire tablet line has been extremely successful for Amazon, which has wisely used its positioning as the home of massive digital content with high margins to keep the price tag on their tablet hardware extremely low.
With the emergence of big screen smartphones delivering displays of 5 inches and larger, and with 7 inch tablets extremely popular, the convergence of a tablet and smartphone from Amazon was a foregone conclusion in many analysts’ minds. An Amazon Kindle phone could help the company steer out of the low margin tablet lineup and into higher-margin smartphones, also allowing Amazon, one of the most trusted online brands, to have a significant presence in tablets, eReaders and the smartphone marketplace.
Many of Amazon’s Kindle tablets already arrive integrated with 3G modems. That is a basic component of current smartphones, and shows that Amazon would not have too far to go to manufacture a smartphone of some design. And according to tech website DigiTimes, an “unnamed industry supply chain source” claims Amazon is planning on targeting a 4.7 inch screen for the upcoming and unconfirmed smartphone launch this summer. Previous thoughts cranked out of the online rumor mill had a 4.3 inch screen as a possibility, but the move towards bigger and bigger displays and higher resolutions probably caused the switch.
The source also suggested a third quarter launch for the device, also stating that a high resolution screen, quad core processor and a minimum of 2.0 GB of RAM memory would be on board. That same anonymous source discussed the possibility of a delayed launch concerning “manufacturing issues at Foxconn.” That is the same manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone and iPad lineup, and could push the Amazon Kindle phone back to the end of summer.
