Amazon’s own smartphone brand is expected to be launched in the next 3 to 6 months. In a note sent out to KGI Securities customers, Ming-Chi Kuo says: “We predict Amazon (US) will launch its own brand smartphone in 3-6 months, using the same hardware strategy as used for its e-reader and tablet. The supply chain will start stocking up materials in 2Q14 for production. We estimate required components will amount to 700k-1.2mn units, and assembly to 300-600k units. Related suppliers will start to see benefits in 2Q14.”
Ming-Chi Kuo’s predictions on Apple’s devices have been accurate thus far. His new predictions show that Amazon’s smartphone will have a system of 4 cameras use for gesture controls along with 6 cameras including the standard rear and front-facing cameras. The gesture control feature will allow users to operate the device without touching the panel.
Processing for the Amazon device will be supplied by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 chipset which has four 32-bit Krait 400 cores and an Adreno 330 GPU – all very similar to the Snapdragon 800 SoC except that the former is clocked at 2.5 GHz. Other features are 4.7″ screen with between 300 and 320 ppi pixel density, 13 megapixel rear-camera (Sony), Primax secondary cameras, battery of between 2000 and 2400 mAh.
“Given the highly competitive smartphone market, Amazon will have to provide users with a unique experience to differentiate its phone from other brands. It would do this by integrating the smartphone with its own services such as e-commerce. If Amazon’s smartphone is a hit, we would expect shipments to grow significantly due to the hardware features and business model. At the current stage, when market acceptance is unclear, we preliminarily forecast shipments of 300-600k units in 2Q14 and 2-3mn units in 2014.” says Kuo.
