Read my new column on Mashable, titled “Five Reasons Amazon Should Stay Out of the Smartphone Market.”

Here is the beginning:

Word is, Amazon is making a smartphone.

Dell tried to make a smartphone once. So did Hewlett Packard. Palm made some smartphones as well, and, we may soon be discussing Research In Motion’s Blackberry in the past tense.

The point is that the smartphone game is exceedingly difficult, highly competitive, and very crowded. The smartphone food chain is also dominated by Apple iOS and Google Android-based devices, and these two giants pretty much obliterate all challengers.

Read the rest on Mashable, here.