HispanicBusiness

Web retail giant Amazon is set to intensify its battle with Apple and Google with a new smartphone that will feature a 3D screen, according to US news reports Friday.

The device would be the first smartphone from the Seattle-based company, which has already carved out a niche in the tablet sector with its Kindle tablet computers.

According to the Wall Street Journal the 3D phone would use retina-tracking technology to create images that would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles.

The report said the new product would be part of an expanded line of Amazon devices that would include at least one other smartphone in addition to a set-top TV box and a streaming audio-device.

The gadgets are reportedly being developed by the company's research team in Cupertino, California, close to Apple's headquarters and are known internally as the Alphabet projects.

Amazon debuted its first Kindle e-reader in 2007, and steadily updated the devices before introducing its first fully-fledged tablet computer, the Kindle Fire in 2011.

The devices are tightly integrated with Amazon's retail offerings and the company's strategy is to heavily subsidize them in order to profit from the services and content people buy for them.