Microsoft meets with Lenovo ahead of Hu visit

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system has long been popular in China. The problem has been getting Chinese users to pay for legitimate copies.

On the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit today to Microsoft’s Redmond campus, company officials hope things are changing. Chinese government officials say they are serious about cracking down on widespread software piracy, and some computer makers are pledging to ship more computers with legitimate Windows software installed.

One of those companies, Lenovo Group Ltd., met Monday with Microsoft officials to reaffirm Lenovo’s 5-month-old commitment to ship computers with genuine operating systems. Microsoft held a similar meeting last week with Chinese computer manufacturer Founder Technology Group Corp., also among the companies that have pledged to promote legal Windows use.

Although analysts say it could be some time before the promised changes have a significant effect on Microsoft’s sales, the pledges are a feel-good backdrop for Hu’s visit with Bill Gates and other business and government executives.

Chinese government officials promised their U.S. counterparts last week to fight software piracy, as they tried to ease tension over the record trade gap between the two countries.

For Microsoft, the move is important because it sees China as a major market in which to grow revenues.

Lenovo, which last year bought IBM’s personal-computer business, is the world’s third-largest computer company. In an interview Monday with The Associated Press at a hotel in this Seattle suburb, Lenovo Chairman Yang Yuanquing said 70 percent of the computers Lenovo sells in China are now loaded with licensed Windows copies, up from 10 percent six months ago.

Yang said the Chinese government has been a major force behind the change.