PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Online retailer Amazon is planning to enter the smartphone market with struggling manufacturer HTC, reports the Financial Times.
Sources close to the matter told the publication that Amazon is at an ‘advanced stage of development’ with the smartphone range.
Amazon already released a statement in September saying that if that if it was developing a smartphone, it ‘won’t launch this year’, the retailer also revealed that any smartphone it did release would not be free, as some early reports suggested.
Earlier this month, PCR reported that two Amazon smartphones were allegedly in development.
One is rumoured to have 3D eye tracking technology, which uses four separate cameras to track movement and give the illusion of a 3D screen.
The other phone is expected to be a budget model featuring the FireOS currently found in Kindle Fire tablets.
HTC hasn’t had the greatest year, back in March the company saw its lowest sales since 2010, two months later former employees started berating the firm via social media after the departure of chief product officer Kouji Kodera. In August, Dr. Dre expressed his plans to end his partnership with HTC, saying he wants to buy out the firm’s remaining stake in the rapper’s Beats company.
Maybe a new partnership with one of the most powerful online retailers in the world will help HTC out of the slump. Although, if Robert Downey Junior and Dr. Dre can’t do it, who can?
