Amazon rumoured to offer smartphone

Amazon, which already has waded into the tablet wars with the Kindle, is coming out with its own smartphone to be built by Foxconn, a Taiwanese tech site says. The Taiwan Economic News website is reporting Foxconn has an exclusive contract to build an Amazon-branded smartphone rumored to be sold for between $100 and $200, Slash Gear reported Monday. The website say the phone, expected to run the Android operating system, will be announced in mid to late 2013, and Amazon is said to have placed an initial order with Foxconn for 5 million phones. The phone is expected to be offered internationally, everywhere that Amazon already offers services, and although 5 million is not a lot of phones -- Apple sold that many iPhone 5s in the first three days of its availability in the United States -- it could be just the first of a number of orders to build up supply for its release, Slash Gear said. Foxconn already manufactures Amazon's Kindle tablet as well as the iPhone and iPad for Apple.