Amazon tablet may be limited to two-point touch

Amazon's decision to cut costs on its tablet might include the sophistication of the touchscreen. An off-hand industry mention suggested the Android tablet would be using just two-finger multi-touch, not the 10-finger touch of devices like the iPad 2 and other more advanced models. Who the supplier was and the cost of the panel were left out by Digitimes' sources.

Losing the more complex multi-touch could render it incompatible with those few Android apps that might explicitly recognize more than two fingers, such as drawing titles. Apple has taken advantage of having much deeper support by enabling three- and four-finger gestures as well as support for more points in third-party apps.

Details starting to emerge about the tablet suggest that Amazon is deliberately trying to run under iPad pricing as much as possible. Along with a nine-inch screen, it would forgo any cameras. The design may still have a modern, dual-core Tegra 2 processor and a variant of Android 3 or even Ice Cream Sandwich, but it would be targeted almost exclusively at Amazon's own services, such as Instant Video, Kindle books, and the Appstore.

Tips have increasingly pointed to the Amazon slate arriving in October. Whether or not it succeeds is still uncertain since it will have to compete both against high-end tablets like the iPad and Galaxy Tab 10.1 but cheaper models that could be in its price class, like the Acer Iconia Tab A100 and the HTC Flyer.

By Electronista Staff

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