Amazon unveiled its first smartphone, the Fire Phone, at an event in Seattle Wednesday. The official announcement confirmed months of speculation that the company was working on a phone, entering a market dominated by Apple and Samsung.
The phone will be available for $199 to AT&T customers, shipping July 25 in 32-gigabyte and 64-gigabyte varieties.
The challenge for Amazon will be differentiating its phone from what is already in the market, something Microsoft has not accomplished with its Windows Phone.
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Yet the focus for Amazon will be selling more products via Amazon, not selling more phones. Like the Kindle Fire tablets and Fire TV, the Fire Phone can sell more books, clothing and music.
It boasts a product called Firefly that is a Shazam for shopping. It can identify any product and put them into your shopping cart.