Alliance to boost sales of Windows Phone devices

China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd and Microsoft Corp on Thursday launched an alliance based on Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Analysts said the partnership might boost the sales of products that run on Windows in China.

In addition to the Windows system on personal computers, Microsoft is also developing operating systems for smartphones and tablets. The Windows Phone mobile operating system is considered a challenger to Apple Inc's iOS and Google Inc's Android mobile operating systems.

Windows Phone devices now hold only a small share of the Chinese market, accounting for less than 3 percent of the total in the third quarter. Android handsets held the lead in that period, with a 72 percent market share, according to Beijing-based research company Analysys International.

China Unicom and Microsoft officials said the new Windows alliance will lead to the development of more innovative devices and attract more partners.

"China is the No 1 market worldwide in terms of PC, tablet, mobile and Internet users," Kevin Turner, chief operating officer of Microsoft, said at a news briefing in Beijing on Thursday. "It is a very exciting place."

"We believe there is a great opportunity across the country to provide new business models to partners, new technologies to developers and best services to customers," he said.

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