For months, rumors suggested Amazon (AMZN) was working on a smartphone, and if a cryptic Tweet and YouTube video are any indication, the company may finally be ready to show it off on June 18.
On Wednesday afternoon, Amazon’s official Twitter account shot off the following Tweet:
The Tweet reveals nothing on its own, but Amazon also included a one-minute YouTube clip teasing an off-screen device that has Amazon customers awestruck.
“It moved with me!” one woman says, flabbergasted.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that!” another woman exclaims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erUZQ9GK0sE
Even more telling, Amazon also updated its homepage with the following image, which isn’t a far cry from alleged images of the device leaked this May:
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say these customers are indeed ogling Amazon’s smartphone. And that whiz-bang feature that has customers in the video all in a tizzy? The glasses-free 3-D display reported last year by outlets like the Wall Street Journal. According to reports, the screen changes perspective based on how the user is looking at it.
If true, the announcement would finally put to rest over 12 months of rumor-mongering. But what will prove more interesting is how well the device fares in the smartphone market, which is pretty saturated as it is. Remember, the original iPhone was introduced in 2007, and initial Android devices arrived roughly a year later. That gives competitors such as Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and the myriad of Android hardware manufactures a serious lead. (When reached, Amazon declined to comment.)
So regardless of whether Amazon has a stellar new smartphone on its hands–given how it’s innovated on the tablet side, that’s possible–and whether it manages to sell the device “at cost” in true Amazon fashion, the company will still have a lot of catching up to do.
Related Video: What is Amazon’s mysterious new device?
