Amazon Readying Smartphone To Compete With Apple, Google?

Amazon is reportedly taking the battle of smartphones seriously and is most liking going to give some competition to Apple and Google.

The Internet retail giant is working with hardware maker Foxconn to create a device to challenge the iPhone and Android-based phones, sources tell Bloomberg. The company is also beefing up its porfolio of patents covering wireless technologies to head off expected legal challenges, other sources told Bloomberg.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumblings of Amazon working on a smartphone of its own. Citigroup analysts suggested last November that the Seattle-based e-commerce giant was working with Foxconn to develop a smartphone slated for release in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Although a distant player in the tablet market, Amazon is also said to be readying the release of its second-generation Kindle Fire, which is expected to put a little heat on Apple’s iPad and the Nexus 7, the Android-powered tablet Google unveiled last month at Google I/O.