Reports are starting to come out surrounding Amazon and HTC preparing to partner up to develop Kindle smartphones. The two companies have not met a final deal, but this is not the first time Amazon has reached out to a manufacturer to develop smartphones.
New reports say the two companies have been locked in talks since June this year and Amazon is preparing to tie the smartphone into their Amazon Prime bundle, possibly pointing at a free smartphone on the membership program.
Amazon has always been known for lowering prices against the market, when Amazon Prime was first announced it was one of the first real ways to get fast reliable postage for free, save the $75 per year for the membership.
The Kindle Fire was the first tablet to really make a splash running Android operating system, with Amazon condensing the experience to make it all about consumption of movies, apps, books and other media and dropping the price.
Smartphones are less about consumption and more about usage, there are less smartphone users watching full HD movies and reading books and they are more interested on using apps, social networks, using the web and calling/texting.
Amazon could make a device that does all those things well and just stock down the price for Amazon Prime users. They may offer a one time payment of $199 and the user would have to buy an Amazon Prime membership for two years and this comes with free LTE, calls and text included.
HTC has always been a viable candidate when working with a manufacturer, even with the limited success they have had outside of Android. Windows Phone has failed as an operating system choice for them and the Facebook Phone (HTC First) did not do well on the market.
