Is Amazon Building a Smartphone with HTC?

There’s been buzzing about Amazon’s efforts to enter the smartphone market for a while now, with reports coming in May that the online retailer would join the 3D-screen fad with the supposed gadget. But a new report from the Financial Times points to a potential hardware partner in the form of Android handset maker HTC, which, of late, has hit a bit of a rough patch in terms of its products bringing in profits. If this report is true, could Amazon use HTC to brute force its way into the smartphone market?

The article offers up rumors that the companies have been working on three possible devices, with one having reached “an advanced stage of development.” If it actually ever makes it to market, it wouldn’t be until 2014, says the article. But that isn’t the only report about a potential Amazon phone swirling today: The Verge points the way back to a Bloomberg report that Amazon could make the phone a perk of joining its Amazon Prime service.

Now, let’s also remember a report from August, in which we heard rumors that Amazon was building and testing its own wireless network, a potential rival to the wireless carriers that currently dominate the cell phone industry. Considering Amazon Web Services is already one of the biggest names in the field of cloud storage and providing businesses with servers, it wouldn’t be at all surprising for Amazon to enter the wireless network business at some point in the near future.

After all, wireless customers are always looking for better options, and Amazon has managed to become one of the most trusted brands in…well, every facet of consumer life. We buy books, toys, fishing rods, autographed baseballs, toothpaste, kitchen mixers, television content and tablets from Jeff Bezos’s monolith of e-commerce. Hopping onto an Amazon-branded cell phone network isn’t much of a stretch at all.

When you roll it all together, it makes a ton of sense. Imagine: you sign up for a subscription to Amazon Prime, and you’re suddenly given an offer for discounted cell service with an Amazon-branded HTC Android phone. From there, you can stream all the Amazon Prime Instant Video you like over your Amazon wireless network. Can AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon make the same offer? Oh, and you’ll get everything shipped to your door by the next day, for free.

Let’s face it: it’s Amazon’s world. We’re all just living in it.