Amazon Purchases Touch-Screen Company
Feb 03, 2010 - By Chris Weiss
Right before Apple brought its iPad to the surface, Amazon announced that it would be offering apps on the Kindle, a move that was obviously meant to position it head to head against the iPad. Of course, Amazon’s device lacks pretty much everything that the iPad offers– outside of e-reading capabilities.
According to a New York Times article, Amazon is preparing to upgrade the Kindle to better position it against the iPad. The retail and e-reading giant reportedly purchased Touchco, a NY start-up that specializes in touchscreen technology. Amazon will roll its new company into its Kindle hardware division.
Touchco’s touchscreen technology is significantly less expensive than that used in other devices, including the iPad; is transparent; can work with full color LCDs and can recognize an unlimited number of simultaneous touch points.
The NY Times got the information from a “person briefed on the deal” and Amazon has not confirmed or denied it. Assuming its true, the market could welcome a touch-based Kindle somewhere down the line. [via NY Times]
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 2:13PM
[...] also announced a Kindle apps market, which is expected to go live later this year, and purchased a touchscreen developer Touchco.We’ll have to wait until the launch of the next-generation Kindle to see just how far Amazon [...]
Thursday, March 11, 2010 5:28PM
[...] its part, Amazon has shown a number of signs of upgrading its Kindle, including purchasing a touchscreen company, announcing apps for Kindle and, most recently, searching for an engineer to work on Web [...]