Amazon on Wednesday unveiled its Fire Phone, a high-end handset boasting "breakthrough technologies". Amazon first smartphone of its own has a 4.7-inch display, a high-definition camera and Amazon's free help service.
The phone also ties in to Amazon's vast array of other offerings, serving as a platform for digital content such as books, films and music and connecting users to the firm's cloud storage.
The handset has what Amazon calls a "dynamic" display which shows images in three dimensions, and a scanner which recognises products for sale and a variety of other objects such as artworks.
(Also see: This awesome animated GIF shows the Amazon Fire Phone's 3D dynamic perspective in action)
The so-called "dynamic perspective" uses a sensor system "to respond to the way you hold, view, and move Fire, enabling experiences not possible on other smartphones," Amazon said.
Another feature dubbed "Firefly" recognises things in the real world such as Web and email addresses, phone numbers, bar codes, and millions of products, "and lets you take action in seconds" to buy a product or create a music playlist, for example.
Contrary to some speculation, Amazon is not shaking up the pricing model for the smartphone market - selling the device to US customers through AT&T at $200 with a contract, starting July 25.
As a financial inducement, consumers who buy the phone will get one year of "Amazon Prime," which includes free delivery of goods and access to digital offerings such as video and streaming music.
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