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Amazon smart TV planned as Prime Day deals show success of Echo and Kindle devices

Amazon is planning to launch its own smart television in an effort to further boost its hardware offerings, with the devices expected to be one of the most popular sale items for this year's Amazon Prime Day.

Last year's event saw online shoppers flock to the site for deals on smart TVs, as well as laptops, headphones, phones, cameras, and other electronics. Set to run for 36 hours on 16 July, Amazon Prime Day 2018 is the third annual shopping extravaganza from the online retail giant.

The new smart TV will be built with help from Huawei, according to a report in the Telegraph, while industry body DTG is also helping test the technology.

Amazon has already experienced considerable success with its own hardware – including Kindle e-readers and Echo smart speakers – by leveraging its position as the dominant online retailer across the UK and US.

Recent figures by eMarketer suggest Amazon's retail sales will top $250 billion in the US this year, representing 49 per cent of all online sales. Its closest competitor is eBay, which has a market share of just 6.6 per cent.

The analysis from eMarketer was based on "quantitative and qualitative data from research firms, government agencies, media firms and public companies, plus interviews with top executives at publishers, ad buyers and agencies," the market research company said.

Consumer electronics and technology is the most popular retail category for Amazon, representing $66 billion in projected sales this year, so it makes sense for it to launch its own products in each individual category in order to boost direct sales.

An Amazon smart TV will see Amazon continue its push to attract customers away from Sky and Virgin Media, with the television coming with Prime Video built in, as well as the Alexa voice assistant and a Freeview tuner.

The Seattle-based firm will be hoping to have the device ready in time for next year's Prime Day, which typically sees a huge spike in online sales.

In 2017, Amazon described Prime Day as the "biggest global shopping event" in its history, surpassing sales from Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The most popular purchase last year was Amazon's own Echo Dot smart speaker.

"Prime Day 2017 was also the biggest sales event ever for Amazon devices in the US and around the world, including record sales for Echo, Fire tablets and Kindle devices," Amazon said.