Amazon Kindle Multitouch Support Coming Soon?

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Amazon might have a hot eBook reader on its hands and lots of content to go with that but that doesn’t mean that the company is going to stay atop of the eBook business for ever. No matter how many million Kindles has Amazon sold, Apple of all companies is breathing down its neck.

Cupertino has launched a hot, but not perfect device, the iPad, which already caused much controversy when it comes to publisher pricing for eBooks. Just this week we’ve seen Amazon renegotiate eBook prices with Macmillan and then we’ve witnessed HarperCollins turning against the Kindle store. Is this just the start of an imminent rebellion?

Amazon had to think fast in order to adapt to the market’s new requirements. The current Kindle models won’t be enough to compete against the multitouch-enabled, colored iPad. And it looks like the company is more than ready to face Apple. Amazon seems to be interested to develop the next Kindle version, the Kindle Touch.

Amazon made two important moves: it acquired Touchco, a company that develops cheap multitouch displays and it has hired former Microsoft VP of Windows Platform Strategy. Is that enough for Amazon to come up with a new Kindle version, one that would offer similar features to the iPad?

Mike Nash, the former Microsoft VP of Windows Platform Strategy, was the first product manager on Windows NT a long while ago and now he seems ready to join Amazon in its Kindle endeavor.

Touchco is a company that knows how to make cheap touchscreen displays. They apparently use interpolating force-sensitive resistance technology to build these affordable displays. This resistive technology is pressure sensitive and will be able to detect an infinite number of simultaneous touches. Furthermore the technology will let Amazon employ color LCDs so the future Kindle Touch sounds a lot more interesting than its predecessors.