With Nintendo's DSi less than a year old, a report out of Japan claims that the manufacturer is already planning another update to its successful handheld console, further enlarging its dual screens.
Financial publication Nikkei claims Nintendo "is planning to release a new product in its recently-debuted DSi line within the year," suggesting the company hopes to compete with Apple's large-screened iPhone.
The device will feature two screens that "will be closer to the size of Sony's PlayStation Portable screen, at over 4 inches inches," reports Nikkei, edging out the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen, and approaching the PSP 3000's 4.3-inch display. (The screen in Sony's new PSP Go is only 3.8 inches diagonally.) The boost would result in total screen area nearly 1.8 times that of the original Nintendo DS, launched in 2004.
Nikkei also speculates slowing DSi sales are spurring Nintendo to put new hardware on the market; the manufacturer has historically used hardware revisions to great marketing effect.
The standard DSi is already the third major version of the long-running Nintendo DS hardware. Unlike its predecessor the DS Lite, however, it includes new hardware functionality such as a camera, and lacks the legacy Game Boy Advance port.
The new DSi, if it is confirmed, is expected by Nikkei to run the same price as the current DSi (18,900 yen) and to be sold in parallel, rather than as a replacement, at retail.
