Amazon to fight iPad with a "super Kindle"

Amazon is not going to take the Apple iPad challenge lying down, suggests the New York Times, as it's reported the etailing giant is prepping a "super Kindle" to compete.

The crux of this suggestion is the rumour that Amazon has snapped up Touchco, a New York start-up that is developing low-cost touchscreens and will merge Touchco's staff and tech with its Kindle division.

The NYT predicts a "Superkindle with a multitouch color screen and built-in applications". Amazon has already announced it is to offer a Kindle Development Kit to allow devs to create apps for the platform.

Apple's iPad - although not a dedicated ereader with an easy-on-the-eye E-Ink display - is seen as a serious future rival to the Kindle thanks to the launch of the iBooks store from Apple which is expected to do for ebooks what iTunes did for music.