With reference to Amazon’s recent acquisition of the NYU Media Research Lab-developed start-up Touchco, the New York Times’ Nick Bilton has expressed the opinion that the takeover evidently “sends one clear” message – that of the next-generation Amazon Kindle e-reader’s prospective challenge to the newly-unveiled Apple iPad.

The key Touchco technology that can “dramatically” change the Kindle hardware is the ‘Force Sensitive Resistance’ developed by a Touchco team, led by the company’s co-founder Ken Perlin.

With Perlin noting that the technology allows “variations in pressure on a thin-sheet material to be converted into varying electrical conductance,” Amazon’s takeover of Touchco will lead to a notable improvement in the Kindle as a result of the potential introduction of touch screen as well as colors to the device.

According to Robert Brunner, a Barnes & Noble employee, who helped in the creation of the Nook e-reader, Amazon may finally split the Kindle into two separate and distinct lines – one with the existing E Ink screens; the other with a color touch screen.

While Amazon’s Touchco acquisition depicts the company’s unrelenting endeavors to protect its business model and market share, especially with the iPad round the corner, Sandeep Aggarwal, founder of Cognition Consulting Private Limited, opined that the Kindle “will still lag behind iPad until it improves on its rudimentary browser and e-mail functionality and introduce media functionality to it.”