Nintendo looks set to make the unexpected leap into the tablet market, using Android as a basis for a new educational gadget for children.
The news has slipped, without ceremony, via Twitter from an inside source within Nintendo who suggests Mario, Luigi and pals will soon be warping onto a tablet produced by the company that will be marketed as a teaching tool only – which is not only surprising as it would be based on a mobile OS (something Nintendo seemed unlikely to ever embrace) but it would also make it the company’s first system not solely dedicated to gaming.
Nintendo of America software engineer Nando Monterazo was tweeting regularly yesterday about what he’s been working on for his employer and despite said employer’s non-commitment to officially confirm the project, his posts have included:
“Experimenting with a tablet of Nintendo, the system is based on android, fully modified and unified as a database of the tablet. #Android”
He later tweeted:
“At the moment just testing communication environment of educational games that will be shared between the kids using the tablet! #Tablet”
Monterazo continued to tease the Nintendo tablet shedding further light of the product’s nature in a response to fellow Twitter users:
“@Chris_Utah3DS @DeSero It is, a tablet with educational games for children with Nintendo characters.”
Speculation has always suggested Nintendo’s inevitable move to mobile and tablet and that if only for brand survival it will seek a move into the market at some point. But the belief was if the move was to be made at all it would first be for Nintendo to develop software and games for existing brands such as Apple iPhone and iPad.
Despite investor pressure over recent years, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has always remained resolute to his vow that a company move to mobile and tablet is “absolutely not under consideration”. However, today’s tablet news follows a couple of hindered releases with the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U – both co-incidentally being devices integrating a touch screen similar to a tablet – it might be looking like the company is now willing to try a new direction.