It’s been a couple of weeks since we had any chatter about the much-discussed Amazon Android tablets to chew on but now an interesting job ad has popped up from the company’s hardware division. Lab126, home to the Kindle and Amazon’s other more secretive device projects, is recruiting a browser expert.
That could just mean it wants to soup up the rather basic browser included with the current Amazon Kindle but the posting suggest it’s planning something bigger. Read on for a look at the clues…
The Lab126 job listing is for a WebKit development engineer. WebKit is the framework behind Safari and Chrome but it’s also the basis for the browser included with the third incarnation of the Kindle which Amazon called “experimental”.
The ad also asks for experience with designing and implementing software solutions in consumer electronics devices and namechecks Android beside iOS and webOS.
Though anyone recruited into Lab126 is obviously likely to be working on future versions of the Kindle, the details of the ad really do suggest that Amazon is planning to push the browser much further than you’d expect to find on an ebook reader.
To compete with the iPad and the growing selection of rival Android tablets, any Amazon Android tablet would need a great browser and the job opening is seeking exactly the sort of person Lab126 would need to build it.
Out TBC | £TBC | Amazon (via Business Insider)
