Amazon won't be ready to launch its highly-rumored Kindle smartphone anytime soon, the company said. Amazon om Monday clarifies that the company will not launch a smartphone in 2013, and if it does eventually launch a Kindle smartphone, it won't be free.

"We have no plans to offer a phone this year, and if we were to launch a phone in the future, it would not be free," a spokeswoman told CDRInfo.com, without elaborating more.

Amazon would need to have access in a portfolio of wireless-related patents and more relationships with mobile operators, in order to come up with a smartphone. THis could be done through either an acquisition, or through patent licensing.

Amazon.com's move into the smartphone market will eventually happen, as the company could sell it low profit margins and provide better value for the money than its competitors, following a strategy already familiar with its e-readers and tablets.