According to The New York Times, Amazon may be working on a device to compete with the iPad. Earlier this month, Amazon acquired Touchco, a start-up company that is developing flexible, color, multitouch-screen technology. With the technology, Amazon could produce a Kindle with a color screen that can detect an unlimited number of touch points and display multimedia content. This would give Amazon a more advanced and potentially less expensive screen than those used for the iPad.
Amazon’s announcement last month regarding the release of a kit to enable developers to build apps for the Kindle also proves that Amazon is looking to compete with Apple. Analysts predict that Amazon will need to use new screen technology or drop the price of the current Kindle in order to compete. Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Lazard Capital says, “If touch screens were added to the Kindle or other Amazon devices, it would bring them up to date with the plethora of other screens consumers are becoming used to. Any device is at a disadvantage if it doesn’t offer it.”
To see photos and a short video of the Touchco technology, visit the Bits Blog.
