In an interview with
Charlie Rose
, Amazon (NASDAQ:
AMZN
) founder and CEO Jeff Bezos all but confirmed the development of
a Kindle smartphone. "Here's one where… You know, we're very
reluctant to discuss our future roadmap," Bezos replied when
questioned about the existence of a Kindle phone. "I will have to
decline to answer that question."
Rose laughed and asked, "Because it might incriminate
you?"
"Yes," Bezos replied, laughing. "I'll just have to ask you to
stay tuned. There are a bunch of rumors. I agree that there are a
bunch of rumors that we might do a phone."
"Of course, that answer leads us to believe that you are going
to do it," Rose added. "You're just waiting for the right
opportunity."
"Well," Bezos replied, still laughing. "You'll just have to
wait and see."
It is not yet known how long consumers will have to wait.
Recent rumors suggest that the company may introduce its first
smartphone in the spring. Amazon may also choose to save the
announcement for its annual Kindle Fire event, which is likely to
take place in late August or early September.
This timeline assumes that Amazon will continue to update its
devices annually. If Amazon were to imitate Apple's (NASDAQ:
AAPL
) tablet strategy and upgrade the Kindle Fire twice a year, the
company could introduce a new tablet as early as May 2013.
Google (NASDAQ:
GOOG
) seems to be taking a different approach. Instead of a
full-fledged upgrade, the company doubled the RAM for the Nexus 7
this fall and released a larger tablet, the Nexus 10, in time for
Christmas. Google also recently released the Nexus 4, a new
smartphone manufactured by LG.
Facebook (NASDAQ:
FB
) received a number of complaints after rumors surfaced that the
social networking giant planned to produce its own smartphone.
Those rumors continue to fade in and out of the tech sector, but
not without criticism from the company's chief executive, Mark
Zuckerberg. During the last
TechCrunch Disrupt
event, Zuckerberg said that he thinks that brand-specific
hardware "is a terrible idea."
"Amazon is producing a completely integrated service that
would do everything that a certain type of person might want from
a tablet," he said. "Facebook doesn't do that."
Despite Zuckerberg's denial, some believe that the company
will proceed with its unconfirmed plans to build a cellular
device.
The rumor partially stems from Facebook's inability to draw
massive profits from its one billion users. While Facebook shares
experienced a
20 percent gain
after an unexpected earnings increase, the company remains
unpopular with investors. A recent Yahoo Finance (NASDAQ:
YHOO
) poll revealed that
77 percent of investors still won't touch
Facebook
. The social networking firm is trading up more than one percent
this afternoon. However, it is still down more than 31 percent
year-to-date.
Amazon, which is primarily a retailer that sells products from
other
manufacturers, is up more than 36 percent year-to-date.
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