Soon Amazon Could Use 3D Phone To Get You To Buy Stuff: Report

Soon Amazon Could Use 3D Phone To Get You To Buy Stuff: Report
FILE - In this Sept. 6, 2012 file photo, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos speaks in Santa Monica, Calif. Bezos plans to buy The Washington Post for $250 million. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 6, 2012 file photo, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos speaks in Santa Monica, Calif. Bezos plans to buy The Washington Post for $250 million. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

Amazon's push to dominate every digital corner of your life continues.

The company plans to unveil a smartphone with futuristic 3D capability in the next few months, according to a tweet from CNBC and a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The phone's screen will be able to show "3D-like images," without the person having to wear glasses, and will begin shipping later this year, according to CNBC.

The Journal reports that the 3D images are "similar to a hologram," and will appear that way thanks to four sensors on the front of the phone.

A phone capable of scanning something -- a living room, for example -- and then presenting 3D images of how the room would look with a new couch or TV could help Amazon sell physical products, said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at the technology research firm IDC.

Llamas said a challenge of online shopping is that a customer can't "touch, feel, sit on" or pick up objects while browsing. "That question is now answered," he said.

Reports that Amazon is developing a phone have been floating around for months. If the report is true, Amazon would be entering a fiercely competitive market dominated by Apple and Samsung.

It wouldn't be the company's first foray into hardware. Amazon already sells the Kindle eReader and the Kindle Fire tablet, and it recently started selling Fire TV, an Internet-connected box that streams content to your TV.

Amazon did not reply to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.

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