May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc., 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 Inc.’s iPad -- a tablet device that lets users browse the Web, watch video and read digital books. The company also faces a renewed challenge from Sony Corp., which introduced a touch-screen e-reader last year. Sony also added a service that lets users download books wirelessly, matching a feature of the Kindle.
Craig Berman, a spokesman for Seattle-based Amazon.com, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.
Amazon.com fell $1.24 to $125.46 today in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have declined 6.7 percent this year.
Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said this week that the company was concentrating on wooing committed book readers and that a color display screen is “some ways out.”
Not Ready
“I’ve seen some stuff in the laboratory, but it’s not quite ready for prime-time production,” Bezos said May 25 at the company’s annual shareholders meeting.
The Kindle uses a black-and-white screen that mimics the appearance of paper. The new version will have sharper contrast that makes e-books look more like real books, the people familiar with the product said. The delay during page turns also will be shortened. The iPad, meanwhile, uses a full-color LCD screen.
About 6 million e-readers will be sold this year, up from 3 million last year, according to Forrester Research Inc. The Kindle has about 60 percent of the U.S. market, followed by Sony with 35 percent, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm estimates.
Earlier this year, Amazon.com bought a company called Touchco, which specializes in touch-screen technology, according to the people.
To contact the reporters on this story: Peter Burrows in San Francisco at pburrows@bloomberg.net; Joseph Galante in San Francisco at jgalante3@bloomberg.net
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