Dai Nippon Printing, a major Japanese printing company, revealed during the Tokyo International Book Fair (which is currently taking place) that they and Nintendo will be introducing a new e-book reader geared for children this Fall for the Nintendo 3DS.
According to the printing company, they have realized that Nintendo 3DS users consist of many grade-school children, making it a perfect device to introduce simple-to-read ebooks for their young audience.
In recent years, they’ve been heavily emphasizing on their e-book business, and are expecting to expand their market with Nintendo, who they are confident will guide them in the right direction with the Nintendo 3DS.
The downloadable software, known as honto, will be available for free sometime this Fall. It will feature a colorful design for the shop page, and a simple navigational system. The software is expected to sell novels for children, picture books, and various study material, which will also be categorized according to the reader’s age and kanji reading level. All the ebooks from honto will have font size adjusting options and will fully utilize both screens on the Nintendo 3DS, which can be read horizontally, like an actual book.
Dai Nippon Printing’s product appeal for this upcoming 3DS software is that they will be providing services using devices that many already own, in the 3DS and 3DS XL, so that parents can rest assured and won’t need to worry about not owning tablets or smart phones.
The price of the ebooks will be much cheaper than their actual printed counterparts, too, and will range between 700 to 2,000 yen.
Honto is expcted to be released this Fall for Nintendo 3DS.
