• ZDNet et al., Thursday, February 4, 2010 1:55 PM

Thought Amazon would just rollover for the iPad, and resign itself to second-class e-reader status? Then you don't know Jeff Bezos. In a sign of things to come, The Times is reporting that Amazon just acquired Touchco - a small New York-based start-up that specializes in touch-screen technology.

To boot, ZDNet is reporting that Bill Veghte -- Microsoft's recently-departed Windows SVP -- will be joining Amazon.com to work on the Kindle.

Touchco's technology is designed to work well with full-color LCD screens, similar to those used in the iPad. As such, "The technology could allow Amazon to introduce a full-color touch-screen Kindle," writes The Times.

And it's about time, says The Register. "Despite getting bigger, and going international, the Kindle is looking decidedly low-tech these days," it writes. "Touch sensitivity is pretty-much standard for an eReader, and the Kindle's hardware keyboard never looked right on a book."

The acquisition "would suggest Amazon is looking to expand its platformperhaps beyond e-readers to encompass more functionality and more content," Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Lazard Capital, tells The Times.

Fast Company, for its part, is advising Amazon not to try to beat Apple at its own game. "Amazon's device is never going to be as multi-purpose as Apple's Swiss Army Knife iPad , and indeed Amazon shouldn't try to make it so: It's just never going to be able to compete with Apple ... Instead it should concentrate on serving the e-book crowd better, and one simple way to do that is to price the Kindle 3 well."

Likewise, VentureBeat warns Amazon not to forget the Kindle's greatest asset: E-Ink. "A touch-screen Kindle is inevitable, but I hope that Amazon figures out a way to use Touchco's technology in E-Ink displays, rather than going with full-color LCD displays like modern laptops and the iPad," it writes. "Thanks to E Ink, the Kindle is ... one of the few modern devices that doesn't force you to stare at a bright back-lit screen, and it would be a shame for it to lose that feature."

Read the whole story at ZDNet et al. »