Lenovo in talks with Microsoft for a custom Windows Phone device

Most devices running Windows Phone offer more or less the same software experience Only the Nokia Lumia series of devices offer a slight differentiation as they provide custom Nokia apps for their own hardware. And this is perhaps the biggest bone of contention for hardware OEMs in regard to Windows Phone, as they cannot customize the OS UI like on Android to differentiate from each other. That may change as Chinese website WPDang is reporting that Lenovo is in talks with Microsoft so that it can customize the Windows Phone 8 UI for its smartphones. Till now, only Nokia has had such an privilege due to its partnership with Microsoft, however even the Finnish manufacturer has resisted the temptation to customize the Windows Phone UI.
Currently, Redmond has only announced that Nokia, Huawei, Samsung and HTC will be the lead Windows Phone 8 OEMs and there is no word on the involvement of Lenovo. But considernig the way Microsoft is pushing Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, it will be fool hardy for a OEM to not tag on the Windows camp. It will be interesting to see if Lenovo is able to convince Microsoft to let it customize the Windows Phone 8 Metro UI and endanger the fragmentation of the platform.