Nintendo’s president shrugged off the just unveiled iPad tablet computer from Apple as delivering “no surprises” and displayed as little enthusiasm for 3D technology and high-definition upgrades for games.
Apple says the iPad is a new kind of mobile device that is more intimate than a laptop but is packed with more functions than a mobile phone.
“It was a bigger iPod Touch,” Satoru Iwata said of the much anticipated device shown on Wednesday by Apple Inc chief executive officer Steve Jobs.
PHOTO: EPA
Iwata denied speculation in Japanese media that what Nintendo Co has in the works in new gadgets may be a DS equipped with a motion-sensor similar to the wand for Nintendo’s hit Wii home console, or a Wii upgraded for high-definition TVs.
“I question whether those features would be enough to get people to buy new machines,” he said of the DS.
Nintendo engineers are developing new machines, he said, without giving details.
Iwata also doesn’t expect 3D video-gaming to catch on, although he welcomed 3D movies at theaters like James Cameron’s hit Avatar.
“I have doubts whether people will be wearing glasses to play games at home. How is that going to look to other people?” he said at a Tokyo hotel.
Separately, Japanese electronics group Fujitsu insisted on Friday it had been selling “iPad” mobile devices for years, spawning speculation over a possible trademark spat with Apple.
Fujitsu Ltd said its US subsidiary launched a sleek multimedia device, which allows retail store clerks to keep inventory data and manage other business operations, in 2002.
The US unit made a trademark application for the name “iPad” with the US Patent and Trademark Office in March 2003, Fujitsu spokesman Masao Sakamoto said in Tokyo.
The application is still pending and has not been registered, he said.
“As we are now sorting out the facts, we have not decided on what action we may take at the moment,” he said.
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