Amazon just rolled out a full-fledged tablet Kindle Fire. It is believed as big competitor for other tablet as the cheap price. Citigroup’s research department says Amazon is going further to release smartphone in the end of 2012.
The new smartphone will be called KindlePhone as rumors show. It will deploy a TI processor and connectivity chips from Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), said Mark Mahaney, a San Francisco-based analyst at Citigroup. www.itgeeg.com
The new Kindle Phone will focus on mid-market. The bill of material list cost won’t exceed $100. Price with contract is believed to be $170 or lower. This is a attractive cheap price which is also a selling points for all Kindle serious. Analyst think Amazon will make profit from their online services other than the hardware itself.
The partner in its development is said to be Apple’s iPhone assembler, Foxconn. Here’s the topline from analyst Mark Mahaney’s newest note: “we believe that Amazon will pay NRE (non-recurring engineering fees) to FIH but the device and multiple components will actually be manufactured by Hon Hai’s TMS business group (the same business group that makes Amazon’s E-reader and the 8.9” Amazon tablet). “