Amazon's Smartphone Will Be An AT&T Exclusive

The phone will be an AT&T exclusive in the US, says Thomas Gryta at the Wall Street Journal.

This is fairly standard with new smartphones. AT&T runs on a wireless spectrum that works around the world, so many new phones start on AT&T. It allows the phone company to make one model that can be sold around the world.

The problem with making it a single carrier exclusive is that it limits sales. One of the reasons Android took off in the US is that Verizon didn't have the iPhone for years.

Amazon is starting in a new, crowded product category and it's only going to be on one carrier. That's going to limit sales, at least initially.

There had been gossip that Amazon was going to offer free or subsidized data plans with the phone. This report makes no mention of that happening, so it seems pretty unlikely.