According to the New York Times’ Wednesday report, citing inside sources ‘in the know,’ online retail giant Amazon. com is looking to boost the hardware unit of its popular Kindle e-reader, with its recent acquisition of the New York-based touch-screen technology provider Touchco.

Touchco is a small start-up essentially interpolates force-sensitive resistance technology to manufacture flexible, see-through, and pressure-sensitive touch-screens, which cost as little as $10 per square foot. Furthermore, the Touchco touch-screen technology can reportedly make a distinction between the singular pressures applied by either a finger or stylus.

Amazon’s takeover of Touchco will apparently further strengthen the capabilities of its Kindle e-reader at a time when the scuffle in the e-books arena is notably intensifying, with the Apple iPad tablet computer scheduled to hit the stores in March.

Drawing attention to Amazon’s endeavors to reinforce Kindle’s place in the market, the Times’ report said: “Amazon has been looking to compete with Apple on other fronts as well. Last month, it announced plans for a Kindle applications store and an effort to get developers to create the same breadth of programs for the Kindle that they have created for the iPhone and, soon, the iPad.”

Meanwhile, as per the information of the source that apprised the NY Times about the Amazon-Touchco deal, the Touchco employees at the Media Research Lab of New York University, will be incorporated into Amazon’s Kindle hardware division in California.