14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo is moving fast to offer more options to those interested in picking up a DS handheld. About one week ago, the Japanese company announced that it planned to launch a new version of the device featuring a larger screen, close in size to that of the PlayStation Portable Go from Sony and the iPhone from Apple, which will be called the LL in Japan, launching this year, and the XL in the West, where the release is set for spring 2010.
Now, Satory Iwata, the president and the Chief Executive Officer of Nintendo, is saying that the company might actually be working on an even more radical redesign of the DS.
Talking to the Financial Times, Iwata has stated that Nintendo is interested in the Kindle reader model, which uses the existing 3G infrastructure, created for use by mobile phones, in order to deliver thousands of books on demand to customers.
He said that “I'm interested because [it is] a new business model in which the user doesn't bear the communications cost. Only people who can pay thousands of yen a month can be iPhone customers. That doesn't fit Nintendo customers because we make amusement products.”
The CEO acknowledged that integrating the communication costs in the price of the device might actually drive some customers away, saying “if we did this it would increase the cost of the hardware, and customers would complain about Nintendo putting prices up, but it is one option for the future.”
The company is not having the greatest of years. The sales of the flagship Wii home gaming console are lower than in 2008 and even a price cut has failed to spark interest back to levels that would ensure it sees an increased profit for the year. For the first time in quite a while, the manufacturer and publisher was forced to cut its process forecast.