Microsoft looking to China to create new products

Microsoft Corp expects its Beijing research centre to start producing breakthroughs that could lead to global products in health care and other areas, the software giant's chief research officer said today as the centre marked its 10th anniversary.

Microsoft is part of a wave of companies that are expanding research and development in China to serve its fastest-growing market and take advantage of a huge Chinese talent pool of scientists and engineers.

Microsoft says its Beijing center, one of six, already has exceeded expectations, producing 260 innovations that have been added to products sold worldwide.

The centre is Microsoft's biggest outside the United States, with 350 researchers.

"They are increasingly poised to produce technical breakthroughs that may in fact be the basis of a whole new business for the company," said Craig Mundie, the company's chief research officer.

Mundie said the lab is expected to take the lead in developing business-oriented products for developing countries and possibly health care-related software.

Microsoft's Beijing team is best known for its role in developing an electronic tablet that recognises handwriting. It also has worked on speech recognition and advanced graphics used in video games. The company says its researchers have been awarded 1,000 patents in China and abroad.

Dozens of other companies also operate research and development centers in China, including Intel Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, General Electric Co, German's Siemens AG and Nokia Corp.