Why a “Kindle touch” could be much more than a rumor

There’s a rumor floating around that Amazon will be coming out with a new Kindle within the year. That got me thinking back when I spoke to several Amazon representatives at the Kindle 2 unveiling.

People think that the next Kindle will have a touchscreen. Is it possible? Definitely. One of the Amazon reps I spoke to discussed how Amazon did in fact look at having a touchscreen in its reader. The reason a touchscreen was rejected by Amazon was current touchscreens are too reflective.

Jeff Bezos stated numerous times that he wanted the Kindle to not impact the reader’s experience with the text of the author. A reflective touchscreen would get tiresome quickly. After playing with Sony’s latest reader with a touchscreen, you can’t help but notice the reflection on the screen even if the text is easy on the eyes.