Lenovo serious about smartphones; eyes possible RIM partnership

Not long after RIM had let it be known that they are open to all options in 2013, including selling off the hardware division, Lenovo has registered its interest in a partnership, as it looks to strengthen its own standing in the smartphone market.

Just days after Research In Motion CEO, Thorsten Heins had made it clear that the company would consider all options, Lenovo has registered a clear interest in a possible partnership. This comes at a time when Lenovo is looking to add a strong smartphone portfolio to go with its computing devices.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Lenovo Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai Ming told Bloomberg, "We are looking at all opportunities - RIM and many others. We'll have no hesitation if the right opportunity comes along that could benefit us and shareholders."

This news was the latest good news for RIM, as stocks went up 3% immediately. Incidentally, the same stocks had seen a 13 month high when the CEO announced they are open to an alliance.

Lenovo is currently on target to become the largest PC maker in the world. RIM, on its part, is fairly confident of a successful BlackBerry 10 launch, both for the hardware and on the critical operating system side.

However, any partnership or deal for RIM would not be very easy, whoever the other party may be. One of the reasons for that is that Canada considers RIM as a “crown jewel”. After Heins’ comments earlier this week, Canada's Industry Minister Christian Paradis told Reuters that Canada may even go to the extent of reviewing a sale of RIM's handset business if such a deal was proposed.

"Research In Motion has made an important contribution to information and communications technology in Canada, a sector that is so important to the Canadian economy. We hope they continue to do so well into the future," Paradis said in an emailed response to the Lenovo comments on Thursday.

Alternatively, thanks to its Chinese roots, Lenovo will face scrutiny from the U.S. government, since the Department of Defense and other government departments rely heavily on the BlackBerry service, for possible data security concerns.