Ambitious Chinese IT giant Lenovo is reported to have held “secret meetings” with struggling smartphone maker HTC about a partnership, but the companies are some way from striking a deal, according to reports originating from Taiwan’s Apple Daily.

It is not clear if the deal would see Lenovo acquiring HTC or if the pair would create a joint venture. An alliance would see the HTC brand, which is more established in the mobile phone market globally, retained.

The talks highlight the differing fortunes of HTC and Lenovo.

While the former was a smartphone pioneer, it has seen its volumes fall in the face of tough competition from rivals, and recently reported its first quarterly loss.

Cher Wang, chairwoman of HTC, last week identified the current quarter as the company’s “most challenging”, as it looks to bring new products to market.

In contrast, Lenovo is building its market share, driven primarily by its efforts in its home market, where recent figures from IDC put it in second place behind Samsung.

The company is also looking to leverage the volumes it is achieving in its home markets to support its expansion overseas, where it has previously announced efforts in cost-sensitive territories such as Russia, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines.

Lenovo has previously been linked with other acquisitions – namely the handset business of NEC and BlackBerry – neither of which has come to fruition.

But Wang was also non-committal on the prospect of a merger in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

“I believe that if you are passionate with your company, if you are passionate with this technology, you really believe your vision is to bring the best products to this world. [If] you believe this ubiquitous intelligent technology is still at its infancy stage, why do you want to consolidate?” she said.