Microsoft Corp is forming a joint venture in China to tailor a version of its new Windows 10 computer operating system for use by the Chinese government.
“We’re announcing a new joint venture that will license, deploy, manage and optimize Windows 10 for China’s government agencies and certain state owned enterprises and provide ongoing support and services for these customers,” Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi said late on Wednesday in an online post.
If the joint-venture succeeds, state-owned enterprises cleared to buy Windows 10 would include key infrastructure fields such as energy, telecommunications and transportation, Mehdi said.
The joint venture, tentatively called C&M Information Technologies (中國微軟信息科技), is being created in a partnership with state-owned China Electronics Technology Group (中國電子科技集團) and is to be based in Beijing, Microsoft said.
The venture would need clearance from regulators. Windows 10 is not currently allowed on Chinese government computers.
Cyberdefense and reliability would be among features that would be tailored to suit the Chinese government. Making it onto the list of approved vendors means agencies there could buy Windows 10, but would not be required to do so.
“It’s common for governments to look to specialty technology partner organizations to deploy technology at scale and this venture signals the possibility for new opportunities for Windows 10 in the many government entities in China,” Mehdi said.
The venture is significant for Microsoft, which is keen to grow in the Chinese market, but has been vexed by software piracy, as well as a ban last year on the use of Windows 8 on government computers.
Microsoft boasted that hundreds of millions of computers in China are powered by Windows software and that it has been encouraging upgrades to the latest version through partnerships with local technology titans Baidu Inc (百度), Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), Qihoo 360 Technology Co (奇虎360) and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想).
Separately, Microsoft is opening a studio in New York to showcase its upcoming HoloLens headset for inserting holograms into real-world settings.
At the studio, software developers are to view a video and get hands-on demonstrations.
One is a game in which you shoot hologram alien robots in front of you.
Another shows the technology’s potential in presentations and sales, using a luxury watch as an example of how holograms can give potential customers more insights into features.
A third demo highlights HoloLens’ graphical and editing capabilities.
The company is to start selling developers editions of the headset early next year for US$3,000. There is no release date for a consumer version yet.
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