Report: Amazon developing large-screen Kindle 3

Amazon has been rumored for some time to be working on a third-generation Kindle with a larger screen. Now the Wall Street Journal says it's true. Citing sources who have seen versions of the device, the Journal says the Kindle 3 may be ready in time for the 2009 holiday season.

That would be a pretty quick turn-around for Amazon, which just came out with its Kindle 2 in February. The Journal reports a larger-screen device could help Amazon "better compete for the business of newspaper and magazine publishers looking for new distribution platforms," and notes that publisher Hearst and News Corp. (publisher of the Wall Street Journal) are developing electronic readers.

There are other players circling the e-book market as well, including Plastic Logic, Barnes & Noble, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and a host of others.

Might the Kindle 3 also target the student market? College students -- burdened by heavy and expensive textbooks -- are seen as a potential market for lightweight electronic readers.

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