Hearst's Skiff vs. Amazon's Kindle: A Tech Showdown That Kindle Can Win

A classic tech showdown has now shifted to the red-hot e-reader market. On Friday, semiconductor designer Marvell (MRVL) announced at the 2010 International CES that it will team up with publishing giant Hearst in a bid to throw the floodgates open for manufacturers who want to get in on the fast growing e-reader market. Marvell will build a chipset called Armada aimed at making it easier for manufacturers to create competitors to Amazon's (AMZN) hit Kindle, among other e-readers. To this end, Hearst and Marvell will partner to create the SkiffReader Development Kit based on the Hearst's Skiff e-reader platform.