Amazon unveils 3D smartphone Fire

Amazon's long-awaited smartphone, unveiled on Wednesday, comes with a number of features like a screen with holographic images, hands-free scrolling and software capable of recognising merchandise and art through its camera lens.

At an event in Seattle, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos demonstrated features the company hoped would distinguish the phone in a crowded market, which Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co now dominate.

The Fire Phone, as it is called, features four cameras that can track faces to show images, appearing to have depth similar to a hologram, and lets users scroll through web or book pages by only tilting the device.

Priced at $199 and $299 with a two-year contract, the phone, to be released on 25 July. Cheaper by $100 than Apple's iPhone 5S with 32-gigabyte and 64-gigabyte handsets respectively, it is expected to attract price-sensitive consumers. Without a contract, the Fire phone would retail for $649 to $749, according to Amazon's website.

The phone comes with a 4.7-inch screen--slightly larger than the iPhone -- a 13-megapixel camera and earphones that resist tangling, among other features, according to Bezos.

Bezos said the company was trying to do something different and better. He added there was a group of customers who would find the features useful and adopt them.

The high-end, 3-D smartphone is the first smartphone the retail giant has produced on its own.

"Can we build a better phone for our most engaged customers?" asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the event. "Can we build a better phone for Amazon Prime members? Well, I'm excited to tell you that the answer is yes."

The Fire Phone comes with a 3-D, 4.7-inch high-definition display. According to Bezos the Fire Phone's 3-D feature was equivalent to the introduction of geometric perspective and the vanishing point in 14th century artworks.

"We're thinking maybe we can improve on that a little," he said, adding that the company started work on the dynamic perspective feature four years ago.

He went on to demonstrate the Fire Phone's dynamic perspective feature on a 3-D map of a nearby area in Seattle. As he tilted the phone to the side while looking at the map, it displayed additional information -- including search results for nearby restaurants.

While reading news articles or books, users can scroll by tilting the phone.

"There's a better way to scroll on this phone because of the dynamic perspective.... It's a very natural, easy, one-handed gesture," Bezos said. "I think you can probably imagine what the dynamic perspective technology can enable for gamers."