Will the Amazon smartphone be a smaller Kindle HDX?
The long and heavily rumoured Amazon smartphone may launch in the first half of next year.
According to new information from a hardware source, the Amazon smartphone will launch in 2014 after all.
DigiTimes said Primax has received orders for the compact camera modules (CCMs) used in the Amazon smartphones.
According to the sources within the Taiwanese supply chain, the parts are definitely for the Amazon smartphone due to launch sometime within Q1 or Q2 2014.
The sources suggest that each Amazon smartphone will be equipped with six of these CCMs, of which Primax will supply half.
By combining the six CCMs, the Amazon smartphone will feature “floating touch technology” allowing you to control the smartphone without touching the screen.
Although DigiTimes has been wrong in the past, it is reassuring to see the rumours surrounding the Amazon smartphone all suggest it will launch next year.
In October, it emerged that Amazon might have enlisted HTC to create not one, but three smartphones in the future. One of these was said to be at an “advanced stage of development”.
However, the FT sources at the time suggests that Amazon still wasn’t convinced whether to launch a smartphone and the release date timeline was extremely flexible.
HTC neither confirmed nor denied the Amazon smartphone rumours, which only added more fuel to the rumour fire:
“We have been very focused on building our own brand, but we have also been very open to co-branding and collaborating with carriers and other technology brands,” said HTC’s Chief of Marketing Ben Ho.
It has also been rumoured that the HTC branded Amazon Kindle smartphone will be a Amazon Prime member exclusive.
Other Amazon smartphone rumours suggested that the device would feature four front-facing cameras that track eye and head movements to create the illusion of full 3D by panning and shifting the interface accordingly.
This would mean you’d have the option to tilt your head to “peek” at interface elements that are just off screen, effectively expanding screen real estate without a huge screen.
Read more: Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 Review
