It has been rumored that a Kindle smartphone may be in development, reports Venture Beat.

That speculation has been rekindled with the announcement on Thursday that Amazon has acquired Ivona Software, the text-to-speech developer for Kindle Fire’s Voice Guide and Explore-by-Touch functionality.  However, nothing concrete has been confirmed on a Kindle smartphone.

Forward-thinking and future-product development are the reasons proffered by Amazon for expanding on its technology capabilities, according to statement released by the high-tech giant.  In other words … stay tuned.

The Ivona team shares our passion for innovation and customer obsession, and we look forward to building great products to deliver world-class voice solutions to customers around the world.