Report: Kindle Finally Launching in China on June 7, Prices Start at $134

Rumors about Amazon’s Kindle coming to China have been around virtually since the device was first released, but until now it has stubbornly refused to materialize. No more (maybe)! Sina Tech is reporting that according to a knowledgable source, the device is finally, officially coming to China on June 7. The Kindle Fire will also go on sale, and Amazon has reportedly picked additional domestic partners to sell the device including Suning’s e-commerce site for online sales and Suning stores for offline sales.

While this is technically still just a rumor, it’s widely believed because Suning customers have taken photos of special displays that are in the process of being installed at the company’s brick-and-mortar stores in Beijing (like the photo above, which is from this weibo post). Additionally, the device has already been approved by China’s MIIT — a mandatory step for any device that wants to access the web — and can be spotted on the Ministry’s website:

MIIT approval for the Kindle Fire HD, via Sina Tech

Specifically, it looks like China will be getting the following devices:

• Kindle Paperwhite Wifi
• Kindle Paperwhite 3G
• Kindle Fire
• Kindle Fire HD 7″
• Kindle Fire HD 9″

The Paperwhite reportedly starts at 849 RMB ($134) while the Kindle Fire’s range will supposedly be 1400-1500 RMB ($222-238), but these prices come from anonymous Sina Tech sources and haven’t been confirmed as official.

Of course, like most popular electronics, the devices are already available in China as gray market imports, but obviously the official launch will make them much more widely available (and they’ll come with after sales service, official registration, etc.). There seems to be a good chance that Amazon’s cheap tablet can make a big splash in China, but I guess we won’t know for sure until June.

(via Sina Tech, Sina Tech again)