Reports indicate that HTC and Amazon are working on a range of android-powered smartphones. According to people familiar with the project, three devices are on the roadmap and are set to be released in 2014. For a long time, there have been rumors that Amazon is working on a smartphone to pair with its Kindle Fire range of tablets as it seeks to compete with offering from Apple and Google.
HTC faces expulsion from the Open handset alliance if it has worked with Amazon to release a forked version of the android operating system from Google. The OHA is a consortium of mobile phone makers that aims at accelerating innovation in mobile services.
As part of the OHA, HTC has free access to the android software from Google. It also has certification for its android devices to be pre loaded with access to Google play as well as Google’s android app suit that comes with Gmail, Chrome, search, Maps and Calendar.
In 2012, Amazon forked android to produce software for its kindle fire tablets in order to access their own app store. The kindle fire range makes use of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Nokia’s maps as well as its own silk browser.
The threat for HTC being pulled out of the OHA could be double edged especially following its third quarter’s dip in loss. It is losing its market space to Samsung’s larger phone range and marketing spend, and has set its eyes on China where android is only used on a tiny percentage.
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