You may not remember that there was a time that Amazon tried to enter the smartphone market with the Fire Phone but it failed miserably. The handsets were sold at throwaway prices and Amazon hasn’t made another smartphone since. It’s not like the company doesn’t know hardware. Its e-readers are legendary, tablets are appreciated, and the Echo series of smart speakers has been a runaway success. If a new report is to be believed, Amazon is working on a new lineup of smartphones that will be sold under the “Ice” brand.
Amazon focused on the United States and a handful of European markets for the Fire Phone. The report claims that for its Ice lineup of smartphones, Amazon is going to focus on emerging markets like India as well.
The new smartphones are said to be powered by Android with Google Mobile Services which means that users will find services like Google Play and Gmail on the handset. This will be a major strategic shift for Amazon as its existing Fire devices don’t have Google apps.
There might be two devices with 5.2 inch and 5.5 inch displays. Specifications of one of the handsets are said to include 2GB of RAM, 16GB storage, 13 megapixel rear camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor, and Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
Amazon has not yet commented on the matter so it’s unclear how much truth there is to this report. Perhaps it may only be referring to the new handsets as Ice because it wants to distance the smartphone lineup from the disaster that was the Fire Phone.
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