For all its talk about being a tablet, the devices that seems to be squarely in the crosshairs of the iPad are Amazon's Kindle e-book readers. Just before the launch of the iPad, Amazon announced they it would soon be releasing an application store for the Kindle and changed the ratio of their revenue split with publishers to 70/30 (with it taking the smaller share of the pie).
And now, according to a report by Nick Bilton and Brad Stone for the New York Times, Amazon has acquired Touchco, a small New York-based company that made cheap, full-color multitouch panels, and merged it with its Kindle division. Touchco's panels are completely transparent, can accept simultaneous input from an unlimited number of touch points, and can distinguish between varying levels of pressure sensitivity.
Touchco isn't the only newcomer in the Kindle division at Amazon. Mary Jo Foley reports for ZDNet that Microsoft marketing veteran Mike Nash is leaving the company to join Amazon as well. Nash is the corporate vice president of Windows platform strategy and will be leaving the company in February. There's no official word from Amazon yet, but it is rumored that he will be working on the Kindle once he moves over to Amazon.
Although Amazon isn't making any announcements just yet, it's clear that the retail giant is taking Apple's entry into the e-book and publishing market very seriously. The company appears to be hard at work on the next version of the Kindle, which will be Amazon's answer to the iPad.
Personally, I hope that that doesn't involve replacing the E Ink screen on its current devices with one that is backlit and fully colored. If Amazon chooses to go that route, it would mean giving up the two most important advantages the Kindle has over the iPad: better readability and significantly longer battery life. I can't imagine anyone choosing a Kindle over the iPad if that were to happen.
[via Gizmodo and Mac Rumors]
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