With the overnight success of Apple’s iPad, which endears itself to customers largely with its bright, colorful display and intuitive touch interface, there’s been a certain expectation that Amazon’s next entry into the eReader marketplace would be a direct feature-for-feature challenger. According to a recent report by Bloomberg, however, that may not be the case.

Citing sources with an intimate connection to the project, Bloomberg claims that Amazon’s next version of the Kindle will not be an iPad-killing touch-based tablet per the expectations, but a more incremental upgrade on the already-existing Kindle line. It will sport a more responsive screen with a sharper picture, and will be even thinner than the Kindle 2’s already trim 0.36 inches. So think Kindle 3 instead of the Kindle Touch.

If the Kindle Touch isn’t almost on our doorstep as we had hoped, then what was Amazon intended purchasing a touch-screen company a few months ago? That was the source of many of our raised expectations for the next Kindle device. At the recent shareholders meeting, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said of the in-progress color screen, “I’ve seen some stuff in the laboratory, but it’s not quite ready for prime-time production.” OK…

It pleases me that Amazon isn’t immediately abandoning its legitimate eReaders in the rush to put out a full-fledged multimedia device, but I’m not sure I understand their intentions. Has anybody ever really looked at a Kindle 2 and decided not to purchase the thing because it’s too fat at a third of an inch thick? Even somebody with severe body image issues would have to concede that it is pretty skinny. And has anybody ever bought a paperback over an eBook because the images you almost never see when reading are less than crisp than ideal? I shouldn’t think so. Faster page turn speed is nice, but is that supposed to move the thing by itself?

This is going to be a public relations headache for Amazon, who is already portrayed in the mainstream media as the eBook company stuck behind the times due to the fact that the Kindle doesn’t have all the bells and whistles needed to convince non-readers to buy the device. If they just push another version of the Kindle without acknowledging the change in the marketplace, they’re going to look out of touch (pun not intended).

This is not to say that this Kindle 3 could not be successful. The Kindle 3 could be their first low-cost entrant into the market, made thinner by removing the 3G technology whose cost is largely responsible for the device still retailing for a couple hundred dollars. Or slightly more practically, they could position the Kindle 3 as their flagship eReader product for the rest of the year while keeping the Kindle 2 available to consumers at a heavily-discounted price. I still think the market for a cheaper eReader remains largely untapped.

We’ll find out soon enough.