[MUSIC]
Hey everyone, welcome to the Inside Scoop.
I'm CNET's Kara Tsuboi joined by CNET's senior editor Jessica Dolcourt.
Big Amazon event this Wednesday in Seattle.
We are both going.
And to confirm everyone's invitation today, members of the press received a copy of this book, Mr. Pines Purple House with a note from Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos.
Apparently, it was his favorite childhood book.
We don't really know what is going to be unveiled at this event, this should give us some clues, right, hopefully?
Right, I did pour over it trying to unlock those clues.
What stood out was that they want to do something really different.
Okay.
So the rumor is that Amazon is going to be unveiling a phone.
And this book is about 50 white houses all in a row, which is a common complaint in the smart phone industry.
So at the end of the book Mr. Pine paints his house purple in order to stand out.
Now I don't think that means that Amazon is going to be releasing a purple phone, because that would be too literal but it does suggest that they want to really stand out from the crowd.
They've already taken on tablets, so it might be the smartphone's turn.
Now there's also been some rumors about some of the phones features, potentially including 3D, whatever that means.
Right, so 3D can mean a lot of things.
Amazon did release a teaser video that showed a device off screen, but people's reactions to it were, wow this is really cool.
Uncomparable to anything I've seen.
I've never seen anything like this.
Really innovative I love it, and it moves with me.
And that moves with me part, people are really latching on to, and thinking that that means there is some sort of 3D experience in the interface, and maybe it shifts as you move with viewing angles, things like that.
3D could also refer to spacial gesturing, that's something that smartphone makers have been working on.
And there are reports that the device could be studded with infrared cameras, and that would track motions as well.
A lot of other manufacturers have tried, you know, 3D capabilities and let's face it, a lot of manufacturers have tried making smartphones but they're not always successful.
What makes Amazon think that they can do a smartphone well and a 3D smartphone well?
Two really great questions.
First of all, 3D in the past meant dual cameras on the back to take 3D photos, and it also meant 3D gaming.
We are at a place now where processing power is even more, the robust than it was before.
Mm-hm.
So, if were to talk about 3D gaming, which this focus really isn't on then that is something that could be supported with much richer graphics than before.
I don't think this means 3D photos as well.
So, again, 3D has a lot of different meanings in this industry and I think that that could just be a catch phrase for actually something really different like gesturing for example.
Mm-hm.
Plus two, why Amazon wants to make if more fun, I mean, why not.
People sort of wondering how Amazon was gonna break through with the tablets.
Because there are digital port, portals for goods, and then they also have their electronic, you know, publishing rights, so a lot of ebooks and magazines and things like that.
But they have made a success out of the Kindle Fire.
They use Google Android as the backbone but it's not purely, strictly a Google experience, because you can't go into a play store and just download anything.
Amazon actually stamps its own kind of experience on top of Android.
So that's what I think that we're gonna see here with smartphones.
What they typically do in addition to that is they highlight their own store.
And they also bring the price down to make it very competitive.
Right.
So at this point I think that Amazon's brand has cache, and they will be able to travel with it a little bit.
Another thing is the company is huge and it's wildly successful.
Making a lot of money.
And it's brimming with money.
So they can afford to take some mistakes and take some risks, right?
What have they got to lose?
Exactly, yeah.
Well it will be fascinating to see on Wednesday.
Do you think that Jeff Bezos will be making the announcement?
I would be surprised if he weren't.
Especially since he's putting his name on the book.
Exactly.
Jessica, thank you so much.
And be sure to tune into CNET before the event starts, around ten o'clock on Wednesday morning.
Jessica and Roger Chang will be live blogging before the event.
That starts at 10:30.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
CNEt senior editor, Jessica Dolcourt, I'm Kara Tsuboi.
Thanks for watching the Inside Scoop.
[MUSIC]
