China’s 2nd-Largest PC Maker to Push Windows

China’s second-largest PC manufacturer, Founder Technology Group, will cooperate to promote the use of authentic editions of the Windows XP operating system and other Microsoft products, Microsoft said Wednesday in a statement.

The deal is worth US$250 million to Microsoft over the next three years, as Founder purchases licenses for simplified Chinese editions of Windows XP, the statement said.

The announcement comes amid a drive by Chinese PC manufacturers to ship genuine Windows on their machines. On April 6, Tsinghua Tongfang of Beijing, China’s number-three PC maker, and TCL also agreed to use legitimate Windows XP. China’s largest PC manufacturer, Lenovo Group, signed the same agreement with Microsoft in November 2005.

The moves came ahead of and after the meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade in Washington, which was Tuesday. The U.S. side has made intellectual property issues a top priority for the talks.

-Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service

For related news coverage, read China to Crack Down on Software Piracy and China Mandates Preloading Software on PCs.

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