Rumor: Amazon planning multiple Android devices (hint: a smartphone)

9to5 Staff | May 16 2011 - 3:06 pm PT

Uh-oh, looks like Amazon is serious about getting on board the Android cluetrain. In fact, they most likely want a piece of the action in the Android space themselves. A tipster told AndroidMe that the online retail giant is planning an “entire family” of Android gadgets for this holiday shopping season.

This tip came from an industry insider with direct knowledge of the project. The information was shared with me in a recent face-to-face meeting and I believe the source to be trustworthy. It was also confirmed by a separate source who has provided reliable information in the past. As with most of my tipsters, they wish to remain anonymous.

Author Taylor Wimberly goes on to lay out the many reasons explaining Amazon’s motivation to compete in this crowded space. He’s got the point and here are just a few…

Update: BGR says:

we have been told that the “entry” level tablet, codenamed “Coyote” will be based on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform. The big boy? That’s codenamed “Hollywood” and will be based on the NVIDIA T30 “Kal-El” which will bring a screaming quad-core processor with a 500% performance increase over the dual-core Tegra 2.

For starters, Amazon has own content store that also sells Android apps. There is also that research and development group of theirs dubbed Lab126 that’s been hiring consumer electronics engineers. Let’s not forget several color e-ink technologies graduating from labs and a Jeff Bezos comment about “staying tuned”. But what exactly did the publication’s source mean by “an entire family” of devices? Your guess is as good as ours and we’re inclined to believe that said gadgets will be all portable devices. Think beyond Android-powered iPad-killer allegedly arriving this summer. Think big. Think smartphone. Make sense, yes?