There is growing disquiet about public sector IT contracts being awarded to Western vendors in China, a country long known for its fondness of open-source and homegrown companies.
According to reports following news in the Beijing Times last week that Microsoft had won a three-year, $3.6 million contract to supply that city"s municipal government, there is criticism that foreign companies are winning such business. The contract comes in the same week that Dell inked a $10 million agreement with Chinese education authorities. One of Dell"s key long-term rivals is likely to be China-based Lenovo, previously known as Legend.