Microsoft and BlackBerry have been stepping up their cooperation with other companies to promote sales of software platforms and related services instead of pushing sales of hardware products, according to industry sources.

New efforts by Microsoft and BlackBerry come after the two vendors saw their share in the global smartphone market edge down to 2.8% and 0.6%, respectively, in 2014 compared to 3.2% and 1.9% a year earlier as compiled by Gartner.

BlackBerry is currently exhibiting its new tablet, the SecuTABLET, at CeBIT 2015. The model is based on Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and is packed with business security solutions from BlackBerry's subsidiary Secusmart and IBM.

The SecuTABLET has been verified for use by Germany's federal government offices, priced at US$2,380, noted the sources, adding that the SecuTABLET also targets other government offices and large-scale enterprises, which pay much attention to information security.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has signed a cooperation pact with Xiaomi Technology, under which users of the Xiaomi 4 smartphone will be allowed to download Windows 10, changing the Android-based models into Windows Phones.

Microsoft is expected to seek cooperation with other smartphone brands to further expand the user base of its Windows 10 platform, the sources commented.