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Amazon is holding a launch event today in Seattle for what media reports indicate will be a smart phone.
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Amazon set to release smart phone

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Amazon set to release smart phone

Amazon is about to jump into smartphones; can it compete with the big players?

NEW YORK — Amazon, a company of seemingly boundless ambition, appears to be venturing into yet another market: smart phones.

The corporate juggernaut that started out with books and soon moved into music, video, cloud computing, and Kindle e-readers is holding a launch event today in Seattle, and media reports indicate the product will be an Amazon phone — perhaps one with multiple cameras that can produce 3-D photos.

Amazon declined to comment, but analysts said the goal is almost certainly a device designed to get customers to buy more things from Amazon. It might include an Amazon shopping app or other features tied in tightly to the products the company sells.

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“It’s Amazon. That says to me the core value proposition is going to be about shopping,” said Ramon Llamas of the research firm International Data Corp.

Amazon’s phone comes at a time when the nation’s largest ecommerce company is at a crossroads.

Its stock, which surged for years despite narrow profits, has dropped 18 percent in 2014 to about $326, in part because investors have been losing patience with its habit of plowing revenue back into new ventures.

Analysts said the move into smart phones is a bit of a head-scratcher, because the company is a late entrant into the highly competitive market.

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For all its success with other products, Amazon will be hard-pressed to compete with Samsung and Apple, the No. 1 and 2 mobile phone companies in the world.

First Published June 18, 2014, 4:00 a.m.

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Amazon is holding a launch event today in Seattle for what media reports indicate will be a smart phone.  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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