Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:

Phone Rival: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has developed its own smartphone, which will launch next year, according to a report in Taiwan Economic News. Rumors that the Internet retailing giant would make a move to enter the smartphone market have circulated for years. The new report indicates that Amazon has partnered with Foxconn, which also manufactures Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, and has ordered the production of 5 million units. The Amazon smartphone will be priced between $100 and $200, presumably with a wireless carrier contract, and will debut in the summer or fall of 2013. Amazon has already taken on Apple, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and fellow book retailer Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) in the tablet computer arena with its line of Kindle Fire tablets.

Backing Off: Samsung will withdraw legal filings to enforce patent infringement rulings against Apple in Europe, the Wall Street Journal notes. The change in strategy will take place in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy. Samsung will continue patent litigation against Apple in other European countries. The two companies have battled over patent violations in courtrooms around the world, with Apple winning big in the U.S., but Samsung taking victories in countries like Britain. On Monday, a California judge rejected Apple’s request that Samsung devices found to infringe on its patents be removed from the market, but also denied Samsung’s motion for a new trial. Samsung said that it was withdrawing the injunctions against Apple products on a unilateral and voluntary basis in order to protect consumer choice.

Downscaling: With smarphones running Google’s Android becoming overwhelmingly dominant, Apple may be forced to release a lower-cost iPhone to keep up with the competition, AppleInsider notes. The idea of a cut-rate iPhone comes from Piper Jaffray (NYSE:PJC) analyst Gene Munster, who predicts that Apple will have to release a cheaper iPhone to retain market share against an Android surge. Munster compares a low cost iPhone to the recently unveiled iPad Mini, which has drawn strong interest from consumers. Apple could either ditch the Retina screen on its iPhone to reduce costs, or simply lower the price of an existing, older model, like the iPhone 4 or 4S. Munster estimates that Apple will sell 45 million iPhones in the holiday quarter, up 23% over last year.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.