Like the original iPhone, Amazon’s smartphone will be an AT&T exclusive

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We’ve been waiting years for Amazon’s challenger to the iPhone to finally surface, but unless you’re on AT&T you’ll have to wait a while to get Amazon’s crazy 3D phone in your pocket.

Like the original iPhone before it, Amazon plans to launch its first smartphone as an AT&T exclusive, reports the Wall Street Journal who has talked to “people familiar with the plans.”

The exclusive deal could be a major steal for AT&T who’s pitted in a fierce battle with Verizon to acquire new customers. AT&T enjoyed a three year exclusive on the iPhone and the lucrative two-year contracts that came with it, before Verizon customers were finally able to buy the iPhone 4.

Amazon has an event scheduled for Wednesday, June 18th, where its expected to deepen the relationship it formed with AT&T who also provides wireless service on its Kindle tablets and e-readers.

A teaser of the new phone was released earlier this month that partially revealed the new smartphone’s profile. The Kindle phone is rumored to offer glasses-free 3D and head-tracking tech along with a library of unique gesture controls that could set the handset apart from competition like the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S5.

Gesture controls on the Kindle phone will be accessed by tilting the direction of the phone while in use to change the information displayed on the screen, which sounds kind of neat, but also really silly from an ease-of-use perspective.

Stay tuned to Cult of Android tomorrow to get all the details on Amazon’s first smartphone.  have all the details on Amazon’s first phone, until then you can just imagine what these people are look at: