Nintendo Co plans to ship about 1.5 million units of the 3D-capable handheld game players in Japan in the first month after its launch on February 26, President Satoru Iwata said in an interview with the Nikkei business daily published on Monday.

It's important that we ensure a continuous supply, Iwata was quoted as saying by the Nikkei.

The company will work on preventing the shortages of products that happened earlier when DS versions were first released, the report said.

The 3DS is scheduled to go on sale in the United States and Europe in March and Nintendo targets to sell 4 million units worldwide by the end of that month, according to the Nikkei.

Microsoft Corp's Kinect and Sony Corp's Move controllers have improved upon the Nintendo Wii's motion-gaming technology. Apple Inc and Google Inc's Android have chipped away at Nintendo's handheld gaming market share.

The Nikkei said Nintendo may release the 3DS in emerging markets in Asia and elsewhere where economies are growing rapidly.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Anshuman Daga)

Apple inc. Nintendo Japan