Amazon Could Start Selling Smartphones

By David Zielenziger | July 06 2012 9:04 AM

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), the No. 1 e-retailer, could be on the verge of selling its own smartphones, which would be made by the same Taiwanese contractor used by Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, Bloomberg News reported.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is dishing out $42 million to build a giant grandfather clock. The clock, which will chime an elaborate song every year, decade, century, millennium and 10 millennia, is reportedly intended to ensure that people will remember Bezos for years to come.

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The Seattle-based bookseller, which has already sold more than 5 million Kindle Fires that compete with the Apple iPad and other tablets, is working with Hon Hai Precision Industries (Taipei: 2317), whose Foxconn unit would build the phones.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, 48, who has an electrical engineering degree from Princeton, has designed some elements of smartphones; last year, he received a patent for one that would deploy an airbag if a smartphone is dropped.

Representatives of Amazon declined comment. Shares of Amazon fell $1.44 to $225.62 in early Friday trading.

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