Software maker partners with Samsung, Tecno, more

Peggy Johnson, Microsoft Vice President for Business Development, announced that a series of partnership is ongoing with several device manufacturers and OEMs to make available a host of Microsoft productivity apps to devices so that more people can have access to them.

The move is part of a push by Microsoft, which has been lagging in efforts to get Windows-powered devices in the marketplace, to deliver services to consumers and businesses using Apple and Android hardware.

Microsoft said it was expanding a deal with Samsung, which has already agreed on pre-installing Microsoft services on its high-end smartphones, to include some tablets.

Samsung will therefore, be the first company to have the preinstalled Microsoft apps on its android devices as the apps, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype will be available on the new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, while select Samsung tablets will come with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype in the first half of 2015.

Secured mobile productivity for businesses will be delivered through the new Microsoft Office 365 and Samsung KNOX Business Pack.

“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,” said Johnson.

“Original device manufacturers are important because they extend Microsoft services to the ecosystem,” Johnson said.

“More specifically, they help to reach a greater number of other device manufacturers, resulting in even more choice for customers around the world, and for Microsoft, this is part of the company’s mobile-first, cloud-first vision.”

“We’ve proven that we’re not afraid to look outside ourselves to reinvent ourselves. We’ve received fantastic customer feedback for making Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype available across all platforms. But, we’re far from done. Now we see an opportunity to turn our focus to our device partners — easing mobile access to great apps and services for customers by pre-installing them directly on the device,” added Peddy.

Later in the year, about 11 hardware partners will ship in devices with Microsoft productivity app preinstalled in them, among the partners is our very own Tecno, one of the African smartphone dealers and a very common name in Nigeria.