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Citing the customarily ambiguous "channel checks," Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney is igniting the idea of a Kindle Phone. Mahaney attributes the channel checks to Citi's Taipei-based hardware research analyst, Kevin Chang, and pegs a time frame of Q4 2012 for a possible introduction in time for next year's holidays.
Mahaney believes that Amazon has tapped Foxconn as the manufacturer, who also makes many of Apple's
Can Amazon push its way into an already incredibly crowded and saturated smartphone market?
There have been rumors that Amazon may be at the bidding table to take webOS off Hewlett-Packard's
The prospect of a Kindle Phone makes a lot of sense, especially if Amazon plans to undercut the market in the same way and sell the device remotely close to its cost and make it up afterward in content sales. The company has already been building an Android ecosystem and the Fire is drawing in developer interest that rivals initial developer interest in the iPad, according to a recent survey by Appcelerator.
This rumor has some legs to stand on, as long as webOS stays out of the picture.
What do you think? Would you buy a Kindle Phone? Share your thoughts in the comments box below. Don't forget to add Amazon.com to your Watchlist while you're at it.