Microsoft to set up R&D centre with China's Lenovo

Microsoft plans to set up a multi-million-dollar joint research and development centre in Beijing with China's leading computer maker Lenovo, the Chinese company said on April 18.
"The investment involves several million dollars but the specific figure will vary according to the need of different projects in the cooperation between the two," Lenovo spokesman Chen Ji told AFP.
He said each party would hold 50 percent of the joint research and development centre. The state-run China Daily said on April 18 that the facility will be in Lenovo's existing research base in Beijing, with around 40 engineers from Lenovo and equipment, training and some staff from Microsoft.
The partners will try to identify opportunities in the consumer and mobile markets such as digital photography, digital media and the Internet, the China Daily said, citing Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft.
Lenovo, which has about 30 percent of the market in China, sold five million computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems last year, out of its total shipment of eight million units, the China Daily said.