Lenovo Sees Microsoft Surface as Show of Faith in Windows 8

For some of Microsoft’s PC-maker partners, the company’s upcoming foray into the tablet hardware market is an incursion, while for others it’s simply evidence of Redmond’s faith in its upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Among those who view it that way: Lenovo, whose leadership said this week that Microsoft’s decision to enter the tablet market with Surface is a good thing for PC makers, and won’t undermine their relationship with the company in the least.

“It’s not going to change the partnership,” Gianfranco Lanci, head of Lenovo’s EMEA division, told attendees of the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. “I think it’s very welcome if other people, including Microsoft, [develop] Windows 8 tablets.”

According to Lanci, Microsoft’s decision to launch its own tablet is a big endorsement of Windows 8, one that shows the company has so much faith in the OS that it’s willing to develop its own hardware for it.

“I think it’s also proof that they … really believe that with Windows 8 they can become a serious player in the tablet area,” Lanci said. “And to have Microsoft doing that, I think it’s a good advertisement for us … and other OEMs. We are not negative at all about this move.”