Rumors have been abound that Amazon is planning on releasing a smartphone to compete with devices offered by Apple and Samsung since as early as 2011, and over the years, many have waited for the retail giant to wow them. Unfortunately, Amazon has yet to unveil its own smartphone.

But this year may be different, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Amazon will be unveiling its flagship smartphone by June and start shipping it by September. The report added that Amazon’s phone will be able to display 3D images to users without the need to wear 3D glasses. Apparently, the device will use “retina-tracking technology embedded in four front-facing cameras, or sensors, to make some images appear to be 3-D, similar to a hologram.”

BGR has now presented the world with its first glimpse of the rumored Amazon smartphone, and based on the photo, despite the device being encased in a protective mold to retain some mystery, it looks like previous rumors of the device having six cameras is true. A closer look at the image reveals four circles in each corner of the screen, then a fifth circle on the left side of the ear piece. These probably represents the cameras first revealed by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is known for giving accurate details about rumored products. Kuo recently revealed what Apple products can expect this year, such as bigger iPhones, and redesigned iPads, among other things.

At first, the four additional cameras were believed to serve as sensors to facilitate hands-free interaction with the phone, but sources now say the additional cameras will play a role in the phone’s 3D capabilities.

One source claimed that the four cameras are low-power infrared cameras which will work with other sensors to track the position of the user’s face and eyes in relation to the phone’s display. This will allow the software to make constant adjustments to the positioning of on-screen elements to deliver a constant 3D view.

As for the sixth camera, the WSJ’s sources claim that it will have a resolution of 13MP. Other specs include a 4.7” 720p HD display, 2GB of RAM, Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, with the device running on a forked version of Android.

A report from re/code stated that Amazon has been courting third-party app developers to have a number of key apps that would take advantage of the phone’s 3D feature at launch. A set of APIs will be made available to interested developers and Amazon will assist them in other ways during the development period.

No news yet as to what the Amazon’s flagship smartphone will be called.

After the flagship smartphone is released, Amazon may release a second, ‘low-end’ smartphone with less features at a lower price. This will probably be directed at consumers who are considering buying their first smartphone, who aren’t willing to spend hundreds of dollars to transition from being a feature phone user.

photo credit: kodomut via photopin cc