Amazon's Kindle to get thinner

Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, plans to introduce the next version of its Kindle electronic-book reader in August, according to two people familiar with its plans. The device will be thinner and have a more responsive screen with a sharper picture, the people said, who didn’t want to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The new Kindle won’t include a touch screen or color, they said.

Amazon.com, which introduced the Kindle in 2007, faces increased competition from Apple’s iPad — a color tablet device that lets users browse the web, watch video and read digital books. The new Kindle may be aimed more at Amazon.com’s original e-reader competitors — Sony and Barnes & Noble — than the newer threat from the iPad, said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research.

“It’s probably likely that Amazon already had this one in mind, more out of a response to Sony than out of any response to Apple,” McQuivey said. Amazon.com may not have a direct challenger to the iPad this year, he said.

Craig Berman, a spokesman for Seattle-based Amazon.com, didn’t return a call seeking comment. Amazon.com fell $1.24 to $125.46 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have declined 6.7 per cent this year.