Last year, we heard a number of different rumors about an Amazon branded smartphone. According to one report, HTC would be going back to its early days as a contract ma[nufacturer to build this handset for Amazon . (For those of you who didn't know, HTC was the company behind the first Android handset, the T-Mobile G1 , the Sony Ericsson Xperia 1 and was also responsible for the Nexus One ). The report, based on a confidential document written by one of Amazon's partners, also stated that this phone won't see the light of day until sometime in 2014, which means that this model could still be released this year.According to Saturday's report, the Amazon phone is known inside the company as Project Aria and will most likely employ the same forked version of Android that is employed on the company's Kindle Fire slates. That means no Google services or Google branded applications. Amazon even has its own appstore on its tablets, which would certainly be used with the phone.The report, which was published today, states that the Amazon phone would be launched later this year in the US., Europe, Asia and Latin America. It goes on to add that Amazon has been in talks about getting its handset distributed by one or more of the major U.S. carriers.source: TheInformation via MobileSyrup