Microsoft to Rope in Lenovo, and Xiaomi to Push Mobile Windows 10 in China

In a bid to capture a bigger market share in China, Microsoft announced it would partner with Lenovo and Xiaomi.

According to The Economic Times, Microsoft made the announcement during a two-day conference held in Shenzhen to promote Windows 10 on handheld devices. Windows has a minuscule 0.4 percent share of Chinese market, which is largely dominated by Android and Apple's iOS.

Microsoft's cooperation with Lenovo will see launch of a Windows smartphone this summer that will be a contract device operating on China Mobile.

Xiaomi's partnership however is not direct. According to a statement made by its Vice President International Operations, Hugo Bara, the company will not play an active role in Microsoft's efforts. Instead, select Mi4 users will get to flash their devices with Windows 10 and provide Microsoft feedback.

"Microsoft is working on a build of Windows 10 specifically for Mi 4 devices. This Windows 10 build will not be running on top of Android nor be available as a dual-boot option. A small number of Mi 4 power users from the Xiaomi Forum in China who choose to take part in this experimental program will have to manually re-flash their Mi 4 devices with this Windows 10 ROM, in the same way they would re-flash other Android ROM," Barra said adding that it is possible as Xiaomi devices ship with unlocked bootloader.