When it comes to powerhouse partnerships, it doesn’t get much bigger than this.
Microsoft and Samsung Electronics have expanded their global partnership. This was confirmed Tuesday.
The effort is designed to bring Microsoft mobile productivity services to more consumers and business customers.
So what does this mean exactly?
Samsung is planning to pre-install Microsoft services and apps on its portfolio of Android devices and will deliver secured mobile productivity for businesses through a new Microsoft Office 365 and Samsung KNOX Business Pack.
Microsoft says it is “committed to reinventing productivity in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. Expanding its cloud-based services to customers in new ways and across platforms and devices is a big part of executing this strategy.”
For consumers, pre-installed services include the following:
- As disclosed at Mobile World Congress, Samsung will pre-install OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on the new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge.
- In the first half of 2015, Samsung is planning to pre-install Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on select Samsung Android tablets.
- Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge will also come with 100 GB of additional free cloud storage for two years through Microsoft OneDrive, allowing extra storage space.
“Great things happen when you converge services and devices,” says Peggy Johnson, executive vice president of business development at Microsoft. “Our partnership with Samsung is emblematic of our efforts to bring the best of Microsoft’s productivity services to everyone, on every device, so people can be productive wherever, however and whenever they want.”
