Lenovo Group is hardly a significant player on the market of smartphones these days, but the company is clearly serious about expanding its presence on this rapidly growing market. While at present Lenovo completely relies on Google Android operating system, in case demand towards smartphones powered by Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone 8 grows, the company may release such a handset.

JD Howard, vice president of Lenovo's mobile Internet and digital home unit, said in an interview with ZDnet Asia should end-users be worried over any imaginable security weaknesses in Google Android OS, or that the smartphones are made in China, the security features in Windows Phone 8 should help alleviate many of their fears. As a result, provided that there is a market demand for Windows Phone 8-powered smartphones and Lenovo’s management gives green light to development of an appropriate product, chances are good that it will see the light of day in 2013.

The first rumours about Lenovo’s intention to release a Windows Phone-based product emerged last year, but the smartphone never showed up on the market. It is even unclear whether Lenovo has actually tested Windows Phone 8 operating system.

At present Lenovo sells ThinkPad Tablet 2 powered by Windows 8 operating system. The slate replaced previous-generation ThinkPad Tablet with Google Android platform. Potentially, Lenovo could release a business-oriented Think-branded phone with Microsoft Windows Phone 8 OS. Still, development of such a project would take a lot of time.

Tags: Lenovo, ThinkPad, Windows Phone, Android, Google, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft