Microsoft eyes doubling of mobile shipments to China in yr

In this file photo Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer gestures as he delivers a speech in Zurich October 4, 2007. Microsoft expects that shipments to China of handsets with its software will more than double in the next year amid an expected boom in demand for Web access once the country launches 3G wireless services.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) expects that shipments to China of handsets with its software will more than double in the next year amid an expected boom in demand for Web access once the country launches 3G wireless services.

About 2 million mobile devices installed with Microsoft operating systems were shipped to China in the last year, about 10 percent of the software giant's global total, Benjamin Tan, business group director for China at Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business.

"Microsoft's shipments into China has basically doubled (in the past year). In the next one year we are aiming to more than double our shipments into China," Tan told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday.

Microsoft's mobile communications business division provides operating systems for smartphones and other mobile devices based on the Windows Mobile platform.

Microsoft works with device manufacturers including LG Electronics Inc (066570.KS), Motorola Inc MOT.N, ASUSTeK Computer Inc (2357.TW) and Lenovo Group Ltd (0992.HK).

(Reporting by Sophie Taylor; editing by Ken Wills)