Amazon.com is developing a smartphone that would compete with Apple Inc.’s iPhone and hand-held devices that run Google’s Android operating system, Bloomberg News reported citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Foxconn International Holdings Ltd., the Chinese mobile-phone maker, is working with Amazon on the device, Bloomberg reported. A smartphone would give Amazon a wider range of low-priced hardware devices that bolster its strategy of making money from digital books, songs, and movies. It would help Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos — who made a foray into tablet computers with the Kindle Fire — carve out a slice of the market for advanced wireless handsets. A spokesman for Amazon declined to comment on the news report.
