There has been a lot of speculation as to when Amazon will release the next update of its hugely successful Kindle reader. The Kindle 2 reader was released in February of 2009, about one year and three months after the release of the original Kindle in November of 2007. If the gap between upgrades was to remain the same then the Kindle 2, now just over a year old, is due for replacement in the near future.

Since the Kindle 2 was launched a large number of new readers from a variety of different manufacturers have been released and end-users have much more choice today. As well as dedicated e-book readers like the Sony Daily Edition and Barnes and Noble’s Nook, Apple’s new multitasking iPad is also considered to be a strong competitor to the Kindle given that it can, among other things, be used to read e-books. All things considered, it does look as if the Kindle 2 may be ready for an update in the near future.

Which prompts the question – what features might Amazon decide to incorporate in an upgraded version? Amazon will doubtless have a few surprises up their sleeve – but their latest business acquisition could give a clue to at least one new feature that we can expect to see in future versions of the Kindle.

Amazon has purchased a small start-up company by the name of Touchco, a company specialising in touch sensitive displays. The technology is somewhat different to that used in other touch screen displays on the market today. It uses a force sensitive resistance technology – which unlike the more common capacitive based technology, can be completely transparent. It may be used with E ink displays and colour displays. It is also, according to the New York Times, cheaper than the capacitive type of touch screen display found in devices such as the iPod and the iPad.

Touchco were a spin off from a project at New York University’s Media Research Lab. They are believed to have no more than half a dozen employees. The technology, although well advanced, was still very much a research project and no commercial application using it had been released at the time of Amazon’s take over.

The Touchco technology might be used to enable Kindles with both colour screens and touch sensitive controls to be produced. The possibility of a more versatile Kindle, able to perform a variety of different functions – in a similar manner to the Apple iPad for example – could not be ruled out. Perhaps this will not happen with the next release of the Kindle, it may yet be some way off in the future. Even so, Amazon’s acquisition appears to be a fairly strong declaration of intent concerning the future direction of the technology incorporated in the Kindle reader.

Find out more about the Amazon Kindle e-book reader – and check out the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you protect and customise your reader.