Amazon Launches the New Kindle Touch, Touch 3G and Kindle – Prices Start at $79

Amazon in the same introduction as the Kindle Fire tablet also launched its own direct answer to the current Nook. The Kindle Touch is based entirely on an infrared-based, six-inch touchscreen with a unique interface known as EasyReach. Tapping the top quarter of the screen brings up the menu, while tapping near the left edge goes back; tapping the rest of the page goes forward.

A new X-ray feature can also give an at-a-glance view of all the relevant content on a given page, chapter, or the entire book, such as names and places. Both the dictionary and Wikipedia entries for a book are pre-cached in X-ray so they don’t have to be used online.

The Kindle Touch will be available for as little as $99in a Wi-Fi only version and will have a $149version with AT&T-supplied 3G.

A conventional, button-guided Kindle should also be available in a Wi-Fi only version for $79. The new version is 30 percent lighter than the outgoing model even as it includes a faster E Ink display from the Touch. The new version drops the built-in keyboard, however, and makes users rely on the navigation buttons for control.

The pricing of both e-readers is both a step to help mass market e-readers but also to distance conventional e-paper readers from tablets.