Unlike iPad, Amazon tablet will only recognize two fingers

Pinch-zoom, the trademark gesture Apple popularized with iPhone, seen above to peek inside and open a stack of photos on iPad.

9to5Google.com sourced several DigiTimes articles from this morning about a rumored Android-driven Amazon tablet said to arrive by September. The gist of it is that the Amazon device will use a low-cost touch panel that can only recognize two fingers at once, instead of ten fingers for touch panels found in premium-classed tablets such as the iPad.

Asian firm Wintek, Apple’s touch panel supplier, will reportedly supply Amazon with touch panels for their upcoming tablet. Thanks to strong iPad and iPhone 4 sales and new orders from Amazon, Wintek’s third-quarter capacity is now booked up. Amazon is said to be developing an affordable device for the mass market, thus less capable touch panel, asserts DigiTimes:

For touch-panel solutions, two-finger solutions, instead of 10-finger ones, are sufficient for entry-level smartphones, noted the sources, adding that many smartphones and tablet PCs launched recently in China and emerging markets, as well as the tablets to be launched by Amazon, all adopted two-finger solutions.

While two fingers are better than one and suffice for pinch-zoom gesturing, some apps benefit from multiple touch points, such as Apple’s GarageBand for iPad that lets you play virtual keyboards, guitars and other virtual instruments with your fingers.