Amazon Dials Up a New Use for Its Cash

Online retailer Amazon.com is expected to reveal its first smartphone, featuring a display designed to respond to users' eye movements and capable of displaying three-dimensional images.

The device is Amazon's first foray into the highly competitive market dominated by Samsung Electronics and Apple. The handset business can be very unkind; once-highflying brands like Nokia, Motorola and BlackBerry have seen their market share erode.

Amazon invited developers, media and others to its event. Amazon will enter the fray with a powerful partner. AT&T will be the exclusive carrier, according to people familiar with the Seattle company's plans.

The arrangement extends Amazon's relationship with AT&T, which also provides wireless service for Kindle tablets and e-readers. The move could help AT&T attract new subscribers at a time of intense competition among wireless carriers.