Amazon's senior vice president, Worldwide Digital Media, Steve Kessel has told Pocket-lint in an exclusive one-to-one briefing that it is still mulling over the idea of whether to take the Kindle ebook reader colour.

When we asked Kessel, the man charged with making the Kindle a success, if Amazon was considering launching a colour Kindle, his response was understandably cagey, however we did get a response nonetheless.

"We wont add colour if it compromises the reading experience. And today colour doesn't exist in electronic ink displays".

Ahh but it does, as Qualcomm is keen to point out with its Mirasol technology. What about Mirasol we asked?

To which the response was:

"Yeah that's in the lab. And so we continue to look at a tonne of stuff in the labs. We look at a variety of things".

When pushed to clarify whether or not Amazon was looking at Mirasol, we got this response:

"Any colour technology that exists we take a look at. And we are there at shows, exhibits, and people coming through our offices that are showing us lots of different things. I won't comment on any specifically, but none of them are ready to come to market in a way that's a great reading experience".

Add this to an interview we had with Cheryl Goodman, director of marketing, Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, in June and she hinted that we could be getting a full colour Kindle by Christmas. 

"Activity will come from the ereader sector first", Goodman told us before going on to say that "We [Qualcomm] are working towards the end of the year, beginning of next, and with multiple vendors".

At the time she wouldn't confirm who those manufacturers/suppliers were, but when asked if the Kindle will be part of the Mirasol roll-out, Goodman teasingly told Pocket-lint, "multiple deals are in the queue".

Could it be that Amazon is experimenting with the Mirasol tech as we suggested in June, but feels it isn't quite ready yet for the big time? We will have to wait and find out. Chances are, however, it is unlikely to be as cheap as the new £109 Kindle Wi-Fi.

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