What an Amazon smart phone would mean for consumers

What are the chances Amazon might launch a phone at its press event later this week, and what might that mean for consumers?

In the past few months, several credible sources—notably, Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal—have reported that Amazon is working on its first smart phone. Amazon adding a phone to its hardware arsenal could allow better, easier access to the company's content on yet another mobile platform—one that has increasing potential to show off those offerings.

With screen sizes for most smart phones growing to 4.2 inches or more, the category is becoming more suitable than ever for enjoying the likes of free Amazon Prime content, such as streaming movies and loans of Kindle e-books.

But that may or may not be enough to make Amazon jump into the smart-phone market. One argument against an Amazon phone, at least for now, is the extreme level of competition in the smart-phone market, with many manufacturers already struggling to remain profitable.

And an Amazon phone wouldn't be a guaranteed hit with consumers. Chances are that Amazon would use a custom version of the Android operating system, as it did with the Kindle Fire tablet. That might deliver a familiar interface for Fire owners, but it could also limit the phone to a curated selection of apps, such as those available for the Kindle Fire, rather than full access to the Google Play store as other Android phones offer.

The customer experience with an Amazon phone is also a question mark. True, Amazon could employ its vaunted customer-service expertise to sell and support a phone, and the company already sells phones through its Amazon Wireless store. But Amazon making its own phone would require a deeper partnership with wireless carriers than other Amazon products have needed to date. And the experiences of other non-phone companies, such as Google, who have dabbled in selling and supporting their own phones is not encouraging.

Consumer Reports will be attending the September 6th Amazon event and
reporting back on whatever the company announces both that day and in the days to follow.

Amazon poised to introduce a Kindle Fire replacement next week
Amazon Said to Plan Smartphone to Vie With Apple IPhone [Bloomberg News]
Amazon, With Suppliers, Is Testing a Smartphone [The Wall Street Journal]

—Paul Reynolds