The e-book reader is one particular niche market device that does not need any more introduction -- it has its fair share of fans, especially the younger generation, who love to read -- but do not want to tote around a hefty paperback or even worse, a hardcover edition of the book. Of course, using the same device to read many books is also a novelty that never grows old, especially when the e-book reader’s display does do its very best to resemble that of reading on paper. Comics are another reading format that has a place in e-books: and Amazon Japan is up to the challenge with their Kindle.
Amazon Japan is in a very unique position as the country happens to be the birthplace of manga, or Japanese-style comics. The electronic versions of such comics are rather storage intensive -- and the same goes for its English counterparts, too, which is why Amazon has introduced a version of its Kindle Paperwhite that specifically caters for manga lovers. A manga version Kindle Paperwhite, if you will. This particular model will arrive with 32GB of internal memory, which is up to 8 times more compared to what the regular 4GB Kindle Paperwhite comes with.
With that amount of storage space, just what do you think we are able to cram in? How about all the volumes of Naruto, Asari-chan, and Kochikame into this e-reader? Apart from that, Amazon promises that it will be able to have a 33 percent faster page turning speed -- making sure that you remain glued to the comic and that your reading rhythm is not broken, especially when it comes to the more interesting segments of the comic.
Those who have decided to place a pre-order for the manga version of the Kindle Paperwhite from Amazon will realize that it costs a wee bit more over the standard Kindle Paperwhite, and for obvious reasons, too. After all, it is all set to arrive with up to four times as much storage space, which is already an indicator of how much more you have to fork out. The manga version of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite will cost ¥16,280 (approximately $157 after conversion), or ¥12,280 ($118 thereabouts) if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber.
The initial units of this unique Kindle Paperwhite version are set to ship tomorrow -- on October 21t, while a software update that will deliver page turning performance to other Kindles is slated for an end of October rollout. Chances are if you happen to see this particular version of the Kindle Paperwhite in the neighborhood, it would be one that has been purchased in Japan, since there is no real need for such a high capacity Kindle for regular e-tomes.
As for those who love to read comics -- regular, English language comics, on their Kindle Paperwhite and have always struggled with the internal memory issue, perhaps this is one way of overcoming that niggling problem. There will be a fair bit of waiting and jumping through hoops before you are able to wrap your fingers around it though.
