Microsoft to promote cloud computing in China

Microsoft is betting that its focus on "cloud computing" services and smart mobile devices will spur more growth for the company in China.

The software giant has stepped up promotion of its cloud service, Windows Azure, and Office 365, as well as smartphones that run its Windows Phone 8 platform and media tablets with its touch-ready Windows 8 operating system. The company is also selling its first branded computing device, the Surface tablet.

Microsoft launched Windows Azure on the mainland this month to provide businesses with computing, storage, database, integration, connectivity and support for open-source software over the internet.

Last month, Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, suggested the firm's revenue from the China market, comprising the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, will surpass that from the United States in the near future.

Charlie Dai, an analyst with Forrester Research, predicted that Microsoft, along with its new network of partners, was poised to write "a new chapter" in the adoption of cloud services on the mainland. "Microsoft will be the leader of this disruption," Dai said, pointing to what he said was Beijing's "strong need to invest in cloud computing to drive economic growth".

Cloud computing enables companies and consumers to buy, lease, sell or distribute over the internet, as well as private networks, a vast range of "on demand" software, business systems, data and other digital resources, including storage. Such resources are hosted in so-called data centres.