Microsoft forms partnership with Samsung, other manufacturers, to bring Office apps to Android tablets

Last year, Microsoft and Samsung announced a partnership that saw Galaxy S6 models come pre-loaded with Skype, OneDrive, and OneNote. These Microsoft-developed brands have their own dedicated folder called “Microsoft Apps” that can be disabled, but not removed.

It seems the app bundling relationship is continuing to blossom as this partnership will extend to Samsung tablets starting later this year, as well as 11 other hardware partners from around the world. Coming in the first half of 2015, Samsung and Hipstreet Canada will see its Android tablets come pre-installed with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype.

Microsoft’s Peggy Johnson said in a release, “Great things happen when you converge services and devices. 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.”

This move is part of Microsoft’s strategy to disrupt Google’s dominance of the productivity market on Android, since Drive, Docs and Sheets are added to every Android phone and tablet. Johnson noted that it is Microsoft’s aim to “bring an array of Microsoft services to every person on every device.”

[source] Microsoft [/source]