Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has voiced his interest in the business model Amazon has adopted for its Kindle electronic reader, which offers consumers a free connection to a 3G mobile phone network to download new books.

The service doesn't have a monthly fee as it’s included in the device's upfront cost.

"I'm interested because it's a new business model in which the user doesn't bear the communications cost," Iwata told analysts, according to the Financial Times.

"Only people who can pay thousands of yen a month [in mobile phone subscriptions] can be iPhone customers. That doesn't fit Nintendo customers because we make amusement products," he added, noting that a one-off cost would better suit the company’s customer base.

"In reality, if we did this it would increase the cost of the hardware, and customers would complain about Nintendo putting prices up, but it is one option for the future."

Despite his interest in exploring the model for Nintendo handhelds, Iwata said that he thought it would “take quite a long time" for the industry in general to shift to digital downloads.