Windows 10 (Photo : Reuters )
Microsoft Corp. revealed on Wednesday that it has sealed corporate agreements with China’s biggest firms such as Qihoo 360 Technology, Tencent Holdings and Lenovo Group.
The partnerships aim to popularize Microsoft's latest operating system with China's strong technology market. The Windows maker is eyeing to secure a stable share in the hundreds of million market populace of the country.
With the venture with Qihoo, a leading security firm in China, and Internet giant Tencent, users who use the two firms' antivirus software products can upgrade their gadgets to Windows 10 this coming summer.
According to a Microsoft press release emailed to the Global Times, the computers to be upgraded should have Windows 8 or newer operating systems.
Meanwhile, the Microsoft-Lenovo tie-up plans to launch the latest operating system in the country.
The press release furthermore stated that the upgrades will be free of charge, may it be done on genuine or non-genuine computers. Industry experts say that this strategy implies Microsoft's intent to grab a market share in China's tech with pirated software market.
In a January report by the news portal tech.qq.com, around 40 percent of over 30,000 respondents said that they used pirated Windows OS.
Among the 60 percent who stated that they have a licensed version, 80 percent remarked that they got the system as a pre-installed product along with their purchased computer.
Analysts pointed out Chinese users see no need in spending hundreds of yuan for an OS upgrade when the previous and newer versions have no big differences.
Microsoft's Windows 8 did not get much warmth from the Chinese market since its release in 2012. On the same survey, only 26.6 percent use Windows 8, while a large 53.6 percent still prefer to use Windows 7.
Fu Liang, an IT expert from Beijing, said that the "cooperation with the abovementioned Chinese Internet companies can contribute to the market penetration of Windows 10 in China."
As a support to this prediction, Ghuangzhou's iiMedia Research CEO stated that the recently inked ventures is a win-win situation--Microsoft can promote its product while the Chinese companies can gain some new users.
However, Zhang enthused that Microsoft should beef up its presence in the promising Chinese mobile sector, simultaneously warning that the firm may still struggle to pull out whopping revenues.
Based on the tech.qq.com survey, only less than 14 percent said that they would be buying a Windows phone with the new operating system.
Albeit this perception, some experts are still hopeful that Windows 10 could be the key for Microsoft to open the doors toward securing a share in the mobile industry segment.
