Amazon Targets Manga And Comic Fans With New 32GB Kindle

The Japanese arm of Amazon is releasing a new line of Kindle e-book readers that cater specifically to avid readers of graphic novels and Manga, which is basically the Japanese equivalent to comic books. This new Kindle will sport 32GB of internal storage, which would probably be considered overkill among users of the e-book reader who only read text-based copies. Then again, pages with elaborate illustrations are going to occupy a much bigger space than simple texts, thus the reason for increasing storage eightfold.

The traditional “Kindle Paperwhite” product by Amazon usually has only 4GB of space. This is not an issue for those who use it to read novels, and biographies, The Verge reports because those file formats don’t take up a lot of space. This has allowed the Kindle to thrive in a world where a 16GB smartphone is mocked and criticized for not having enough room for all the apps and files that users tend to build up.

However, it seems Amazon Japan thinks that there is a market for offering a version of the e-book reader with significantly more storage space within the country. Thus, the “Manga Model” Kindle was born, which is available for pre-order for $157.

The new model is able to store up to 700 volumes of Manga, thus allowing users to store every single copy of Naruto, Onepiece, and Bleach on the device. Having said that, there are hundreds of Manga and comic books in the market right now, many of which can reach 20 volumes each. For some of the most voracious fans of the medium, 32GB might even prove insufficient.

“Manga Model” is not available for U.S. customers at the moment, which is something that the growing number of fans will likely find disappointing. As Geekwire notes, reading Manga has grown from being a niche activity to something resembling mainstream status. Amazon Japan might just have something with its upgraded Kindle model.