It was inevitable, really. Apple is poised to take a good chunk of business away from Amazon and the Kindle when the iBook Store launches next month. But this has nothing to do with content deals or e-book pricing squabbles.
Amazon is preparing to beef up its Kindle hardware with news that it has acquired New York-based Touchco. Both parties are declining to comment, but word is Touchco will be integrated into the Kindle hardware division, Lab126.
So what’s so special about Touchco? According to the Times, Touchco’s tech is capable of registering a limitless number of concurrent touch points. The interpolating force-sensitive resistant technology is pretty cheap, too. A square foot could cost as little as $10. It’s also sensitive enough to measure varying degrees of pressure as well as differentiating between a finger or pen. Is it color? Apparently.
This appears to go behind reading books. Remember how perplexed I was about EA Mobile’s involvement with the Kindle App Store announcement? That totally makes sense now.
More as we get it.
