``In a sign of how hot the mobile data market has become, Visto Corp., a wireless software firm, Monday said it too will begin serving mainland China. Rather than trying to partner with one of China`s state-owned phone companies, however, the U.S. company has partnered with Lenovo Corp., the Chinese computer giant that recently bought IBM`s PC business.

“Lenovo is very well established in the China market. They have a history of relationships with all the wireless operators in China, and we believe that will very aggressively help Visto to enter the China market and reduce the time to market in that region,” Sanjay Kamble, Visto`s vice-president of marketing, said in an interview.

RIM`s announcements come as it tries to rebuild momentum after a lengthy patent infringement suit nearly shut down most of its operations in the United States. RIM paid NTP Inc. $612.5-million (U.S.) to settle the case it lost.``