Microsoft mulls bigger market share in China

Microsoft Corp, the world's leading manufacturer of software for personal and business computing, estimates that shipments of handsets with its software to China will more than double in 2009, on an expected surging demand for Web access.

The demand for Web access via cell phones will be more pronounced once the country launches 3G wireless services, analysts noted.

Approximately two million mobile devices installed with Microsoft operating systems were shipped to China last year, accounting for 10% of the software giant's global total, said Benjamin Tan, business group director for China at the Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business.

"Microsoft's shipping into China has basically doubled in the past year. In the next one year we are aiming to more than double our shipments to China," Tan said in an interview.