One thing to know about Amazon is that they use PR to leak things. I think there's an ethical problem in reporters not revealing that a "leak" is coming from a

One thing to know about Amazon is that they use PR to leak things. I think there's an ethical problem in reporters not revealing that a "leak" is coming from a PR agency. "people familiar with the situation said" conveys a very different impression than "according to amazon PR off the record." When I worked there, they released dozens of products a year. They would have teams work for 6 months to create a product for a press release and then the team would dissipate over the next 6 months, the "product" would simply get stale and eventually be cut. Amazon movie times, local menus, catalog ordering, etc. Amazon is a hype machine, driven to keep their PE in the stratosphere. I understood this in the 1990s, I have not understood it since, but that's how they operate. They do have a solid business in Amazon.com (but notice how the international expansion stopped dead. Easy to do a big PR campaign about going worldwide, but then you don't have to follow thru). All those kindle fire rumors before it was announced? They came from Amazon PR. This is how MG got his hands on one early... it wasn't some amazon employee that snuck it out of the building, it was an amazon PR Flack that handed it to him. This is how they also say things like "The kindle fire is selling like crazy" to create that perception, without actually releasing any numbers. If they released numbers it would allow direct comparisons and be embarrassing. If they released fraudulent numbers it would be actionable in a shareholder lawsuit. But they can release whatever "Whispers" they want and create the perception that the kindle fire is selling like crazy... because Amazon PR said so. I can't say it doesn't work though. These rumors come out, the stock price is goosed. They eventually release a phone, the stock price is goosed. By the time they give up on the phone, people will have generally forgotten about it anyway. Or it might be one of those few products that does make some money. (or that they figure is a sufficient PR generator to keep pouring money into-- if legions of people will call every leaked upcoming kindle fire an "iPad killer" then maybe the PR value is sufficient.) Frankly, I think it is a form of fraud. They have way mislead people about amazon fire sales. Some people even think they sell as many fires as Apple sells iPads. But that's the kind of company they are.