I have to admit, when I first purchased my Kindle 2, I was excited about the prospect of carrying around a device that had unlimited free access to AT&T’s 3G network. I hadn’t yet jumped on the smart phone bandwagon, so there was a certain novelty in the fact that I could check my Gmail account while sprawled on a beach blanket and soaking up the sun. Almost a year later, my Kindle use has hardly diminished, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I loaded up the browser. To me, that’s telling.

While the fact that I have purchase a Droid in the interim has a lot to do with its diminished use, anybody who has ever tried to use the Experimental Browser can attest to the fact that it is the farthest thing from intuitive. With no color and only the most rudimentary of navigation systems, the heights to which potential users can aspire are fairly limited – maybe checking your email or Google News if you’ve really got an itch.

A recent job posting by Amazon indicates that times may well be changing for Kindle Browser users. Originally noted in a tweet by CNET’s Stephen Shankland, the listing calls for a software development engineer to join their Web Browser team to develop applications for “innovative consumer-centric product solutions.” And what else could that be but the Kindle?

Of course, this begs the question, is Amazon taking on new hands to build out and expand the browser they have for the current iterations for the Kindle, or is this the first step in developing a browser solution for the still-highly-speculative new Kindle SKU? The evidence for the former isn’t terribly compelling. It doesn’t matter what kind of technical wizard you have behind the scenes – nobody is going to be able to do anything to improve the Kindle’s refresh rate, color display, or navigation, all of which are its biggest Achilles heel and are paradoxically tied to the technology that makes it among the best e-Readers on the market – the e-Ink screen.

If Amazon IS looking forward to the next version of the Kindle, that does make more sense. Having enlisted developers to come up with applications in the wake of the iPad announcement, it seems clear that Amazon isn’t content keeping the Kindle as an elegant, single-purpose device. They’ve been deluded by the Apple geek groupthink into believing that consumers are buying their product so they can carry another device around with which to mindless scroll through Facebook updates. At least if the next Kindle sports features like a full color display and a touch interface, it’ll actually be equipped to handle a proper web browser. Heck, if it can do Flash, it might even one-up the iPad.

We shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth if Amazon DOES decide to update the browser experience, but nobody should be shedding any tears if this new hire winds up working on something we’re not going to see for months, as I suspect is the case.