Leaked renders purportedly show 3D sensing phone Amazon plans to pit against Apple's iPhone
Signs that Amazon plans to enter the smartphone market later this year continue to grow, as newly leaked renders allegedly from the online retailer claim to show the expected final appearance of the company's anticipated 3D-sensing handset.
The product renders, published on Thursday by BGR, are said to have been created by graphic designers working at Amazon. While the 3D motion sensing functionality expected of the device would be unique, its overall look it essentially what's expected of a modern smartphone, and not dissimilar from Apple's own iPhone.
The top of the handset is shown with a touchscreen display, earpiece and single button likely used as a "home" button. On the left side is a SIM tray and three buttons, presumably for volume and perhaps mute or lock.
On the bottom are two grilles, which are most likely for the microphone input and speaker output. In between them is port, assume to be micro USB, while screws are located to the outside.
On the back, the render shows just an Amazon logo and the necessary FCC and other legal information against a black background, in a design particularly reminiscent of Apple's iPhone. The camera, accompanying flash, and what appears to be a rear facing microphone are located at the top right corner, as opposed to their location on the left side of the iPhone.
Not shown in the renders are the multitude of other cameras that are expected to be included in the device, likely hidden under the front glass panel.
AppleInsider exclusively reported last October that Amazon is planning to release a smartphone this year that will include advanced input methods using eye tracking and 3D gestures. In total, Amazon's phone is expected to feature six cameras: the typical forward and rear facing ones for photos, and four additional cameras with 3D sensing capabilities.
The handset itself was allegedly leaked, cameras and all, with photos of a prototype that surfaced earlier this month. That device was shown featuring a 4.7-inch display, but it came concealed in a plastic outer casing that hid the actual design of the device.
Amazon is said to be working with third-party developers to enable popular applications to take advantage of the 3D features prior to the phone's release.
If Amazon does in fact release a smartphone, it would mark yet another market where the retailer plans to compete with Apple. Its Kindle Fire tablets already serve as a low-cost alternative to Apple's iPad lineup, while Amazon also takes on iTunes in the digital content business with music, movies and books.
The product renders, published on Thursday by BGR, are said to have been created by graphic designers working at Amazon. While the 3D motion sensing functionality expected of the device would be unique, its overall look it essentially what's expected of a modern smartphone, and not dissimilar from Apple's own iPhone.
The top of the handset is shown with a touchscreen display, earpiece and single button likely used as a "home" button. On the left side is a SIM tray and three buttons, presumably for volume and perhaps mute or lock.
On the bottom are two grilles, which are most likely for the microphone input and speaker output. In between them is port, assume to be micro USB, while screws are located to the outside.
On the back, the render shows just an Amazon logo and the necessary FCC and other legal information against a black background, in a design particularly reminiscent of Apple's iPhone. The camera, accompanying flash, and what appears to be a rear facing microphone are located at the top right corner, as opposed to their location on the left side of the iPhone.
Not shown in the renders are the multitude of other cameras that are expected to be included in the device, likely hidden under the front glass panel.
AppleInsider exclusively reported last October that Amazon is planning to release a smartphone this year that will include advanced input methods using eye tracking and 3D gestures. In total, Amazon's phone is expected to feature six cameras: the typical forward and rear facing ones for photos, and four additional cameras with 3D sensing capabilities.
The handset itself was allegedly leaked, cameras and all, with photos of a prototype that surfaced earlier this month. That device was shown featuring a 4.7-inch display, but it came concealed in a plastic outer casing that hid the actual design of the device.
Amazon is said to be working with third-party developers to enable popular applications to take advantage of the 3D features prior to the phone's release.
If Amazon does in fact release a smartphone, it would mark yet another market where the retailer plans to compete with Apple. Its Kindle Fire tablets already serve as a low-cost alternative to Apple's iPad lineup, while Amazon also takes on iTunes in the digital content business with music, movies and books.
Comments
And Apple sues over the chamfering.
Apple has got another moronic company to sue and chase!
The design is cross-breed of Apple's new iPod/iPad and Nexus.
The design is cross-breed of Apple's new iPod/iPad and Nexus.
That is how evolution works. There is only one chromosome difference between a human and a chimpanzee.
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Samsung has the money and expertise to compete here. Amazon is going to join the long list of wreaked companies that tried to make cell phones.
Samsung and HTC will have a lot more to worry about from this Amazon phone than Apple. I wonder if they are planning to try and sell it on all major carriers or perhaps even create an entire Amazon MVNO brand and just lease from the big 4 and sell actual pre-paid type plans.
...right down to the lightning connector.
Samsung and HTC will have a lot more to worry about from this Amazon phone than Apple. I wonder if they are planning to try and sell it on all major carriers or perhaps even create an entire Amazon MVNO brand and just lease from the big 4 and sell actual pre-paid type plans.
Probably use AT&T just like they do with Kindle, 250GB per month, 20GB cloud, $10 Amazon app credit, for $50 a year. Of course the talk and SMS factors will affect the price but I bet it will still be cheap compared to iPhone plans.
It looks like an iPhone. Amazon needs to get their own ideas.
You are expecting too much!
Huh?
1. It looks like an I-Phone, a product that was first released in 2007 and has for 5 years been the de-facto standard mobile device? SHOCKING! Riddle me this:
A. How is a touch-screen based, app-driven smartphone going to look like anything but an I-Phone? (Other than by being a total design failure like Windows 8 phones that is.)
B. Since the market is already flooded with Android phones that are based on the I-Phone design, why is making yet another device that looks like one that has been on the market for 7 years a big deal in any way?
2. "Its Kindle Fire tablets already serve as a low-cost alternative to Apple's iPad lineup"
Kindle generation 1: introduced in 2007. Kindle generation 2: introduced in 2009. Kindle generation 3: introduced in 2011. Which is when the first Apple tablet was introduced. Amazon sold tens of millions of tablets before Apple sold a single one. Even after Kindle adopted Android in 2011 with the Kindle Fire, it was still an e-reader whose main competition was Barnes and Noble's Nook, back when Amazon and Barnes and Noble were fighting over the book business tooth and nail (both physical books and e-books). For instance, Amazon Prime was originally just a marketing ploy make primarily to college students to use free express shipping as a way to get them to buy their textbooks from Amazon instead of a Barnes and Noble bookstore. Amazon made the Fire a full-fledged (but still low end) tablet only because the e-books market went bust, so they instead began to market it as a way to consume other Amazon content and services like buying apps and streaming movies and buying cloud storage. But claiming it as a competitor to the I-Pad is ridiculous. It isn't even a competitor to the Galaxy Note tablets. All it is good for is reading books, streaming videos and pictures, and playing games. You don't see Amazon claiming that even their most expensive tablet can be an enterprise/productivity/educational device because the hardware won't support it.
3. The Fire TV: well that is more legitimate because the name (Fire TV) is directly aimed at Apple TV, and it even sort of "looks" like an Apple TV kinda. But remember that Amazon was originally going to make a dongle to take on Chromecast but its executives rejected it. But the only reason why Amazon came out with Fire TV at all was to get more people to use Amazon Prime, which was lagging way behind Netflix (in no small part because Amazon Prime is not available on Apple TV) and they saw an opportunity to integrate it with their Kindle HD apps by adding a gaming component.
So they aren't "competing with Apple" but trying to make money with their own services. The Kindle Fire, Fire TV and now Amazon Phone is an extension of products and services that Amazon had before the I-Pad and even the I-Phone (the first Kindle was launched a few months before the first I-Phone, and it sold out in five hours).
Goodness, not everyone who comes out with a similar product is Samsung or even Google, OK?
I wish Amazon would focus on shipping groceries locally instead of playing "me too" with Apple.
See above.
1. They are doing this to monetize their own products and services. Amazon was pushing hardware to sell products through Amazon before the I-Phone and I-Pad even came out. So there is no basis to expect them to leave a space that they were in long before they could be construed to be emulating Apple.
2. Being one of dozens of companies to make smartphones is hardly playing "me too" with Apple. Amazon isn't even the only company planning to enter the smartphone business in the next two years. As long as smartphones and tablets continue to make money, companies are going to get in on it. As a matter of fact, as smartphones and tablets replace computers and branches off into "the Internet of things" with wearables, devices to monitor and control appliances etc. even more companies are going to enter this space.
Last time I checked, 48-46 was 2 and not 1. :smokey:
So the cool new design aesthetic is now just basically a Cadbury bar with rounded corners?
Do people need a 3D phone? Or is it more in the "Google Glass meets My Own Personal Drone" category? (I.e. things that would be cool to play with for a while but not stuff you necessarily want to be using every day.)
chromosomes are like jeans (pun intended) they only come in pairs.
Amazon will always remain a retail/broken grocery store!
I don't quite see how this smartphone will be that much different from every other smartphone on the planet except for this 3D-sensing whatever feature. I suppose Apple should pretty much ignore Amazon's attempts because it really doesn't seem as though Amazon is trying to get into Apple's face with products. Amazon is basically providing its own hardware conduit to Amazon's after-sales of content. Amazon may even provide its own special low-priced carrier plan which would be nice for consumers. I'd say Amazon definitely gives consumer's good bang for the buck when offering their products.