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The rumor mill is always running in China, but at least today it is not political. Amazon is making an appearance in China with its Kindle e-reader, as last Thursday it was revealed that a Chinese version is now available. At the earliest, there will be one model listed by the end of the month, while in total about 5 models have already received certification. They expect to rollout the devices sometime in the first half of 2013.
E-readers have fallen by the wayside in the past two years, especially in China where tablets and smartphones have occupied the wish lists of most consumers; however, this will change quickly if Amazon can bring its established framework to China and adapt to its book market.
Since its launch in 2007, sales of e-books on Amazon Kindle have already surpassed traditional book sales in the US. Their latest model, Kindle Paperwhite, has already hit the markets and consumers are waiting as long as 4 weeks for shipments.
According to a Sina Tech report, an Amazon representative revealed to them anonymously that a Chinese version has been in the works for almost 2 years.
Still, there is skepticism that the Chinese will adopt e-readers in the same way that Americans have adopted them. If consumers in China are not yet ready to pay for e-books, Amazon might be looking for trouble. Yet with such a strong brand and with mature content, payment, and copyright protection systems, they will certainly change the industry rather quickly.
Source: Sina Tech