The Amazon smartphone release date and features have been tipped by a notoriously accurate industry insider.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo, KGI Securities analyst and someone with a fantastic reputation of correctly revealing manufacturers’ plans before they are announced, Amazon’s smartphone will be unveiled within the next 3 – 6 months.
“We predict Amazon (US) will launch its own brand smartphone in 3-6 months, using the same hardware strategy as used for its e-reader and tablet”, said Kuo in a note to clients obtained by BGR. “The supply chain will start stocking up materials in 2Q14 for production. We estimate required components will amount to 700k – 1.2m units and assembly to 300 – 600k units. Related suppliers will start to see benefits in 2Q14.”
It is believed that the Amazon smartphone will be running on the same Fire OS as the Amazon Kindle Fire range, which is Android with a heavy overlaid UI.
What’s interesting is that Kuo confirms previous rumours of the Amazon smartphone offering not two, but six cameras that will be used for enhanced gesture controls.
“The key feature of the smartphone, we believe, will be the six cameras. Aside from the main camera, which is used to take pictures, and the sub camera used for video conferencing (these are both found in all smartphones), we think the other four cameras will be used for gesture control, allowing users to operate the smartphone without touching the touch panel.”
Specs wise, Kuo suggests the Amazon smartphone will have a 4.7-inch display with a pixel density of somewhere between 300 and 320ppi. This would roughly work out at 720p HD rather than 1080p full HD.
It will also apparently have a plastic body and feature a 13-megapixel rear camera supplied by Sony. All the other cameras, including the front-facing video-calling snapper, would be produced by Primax.
Battery size is tipped to lie somewhere between 2,000 and 2,400mAh.
“While Amazon’s smartphone is at the experimental stage, we think its hardware features and business model may have the potential to garner a positive market reaction, fueling robust sales growth,” added Kuo.
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