Amazon was rumoured to be beavering away on a Kindle tablet to take on iBooks and the iPad. But Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has poured cold water on the a Kindle colour screen. Is he just keeping his cards close to his chest? Or is Amazon really struggling to develop a compelling iPad rival?
Asked about when a Kindle colour screen will arrive, Bezos said LCD displays like the one nestling in the iPad aren’t right for a dedicated reading device like the Kindle. He’s right about the eye-strain inducing qualities of LCDs but that assumes people are after a device that’s just for ebooks.
Rumours last week suggested that Amazon has been tinkering with a Kindle tablet with a colour screen and games on the cards. Bezos’ comments didn’t totally sink that idea. He said: “High-quality colour is still some ways out. There are several things in the lab but they’re not quite ready for prime-time production.”
Amazon snapped up touchscreen maker Touchco last year prompting a rash of rumours about a Kindle Touch model on the horizon. While we found plenty of things we liked about Amazon’s tech in our Kindle review, the eink champ is starting to look stale compared to the iPad.
Let us know: do you think Amazon will create hardware to rival the iPad? Or should it just focus on other avenues like iPad Kindle app and integration on other devices like the Dell Streak?
