Latest rumours say Apple’s coming device is not a touch-screen netbook but an Amazon Kindle-style ebook reader.

Why should Kindle and Amazon.com enjoy all the accolades of being the iPod and iTunes of books?

New evidence points to Apple scheming for iTunes to be the, well, iTunes of books.

Exhibit A: trucks - spotted by a Chicago Sun-Times reporter - which have apparently been delivering large quantities of books to Apple, suggesting a major scanning operation is underway - perchance to build a library of ebooks to place on iTunes, the better to provide content for a coming Apple ebook tablet.

The absent Steve Jobs may have pooh-poohed the Kindle in its initial release, saying “the whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

But now Amazon is forcing Apple’s hand. The e-tailer has trampled Apple’s home turf by releasing an iPhone version of its Kindle e-book software.

Could Apple be readying a full-force response to Amazon's invasion?

Auckland book publisher and Digital Publishing MD Martin Taylor hopes so. Writing in The New Zealand Author, Mr Taylor says “it’s questionable whether it's in the industry's, or the consumers', interests to have one company dominating so much of the industry value chain."