Samsung Extends Preinstalled Microsoft Apps Bundle To Android Tablets

When Samsung announced its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones earlier this month, the electronics giant confirmed previous speculation that it would preinstall a bundle of Microsoft apps. Both flagship smartphones will come with OneNote, OneDrive (complete with 100GB of storage, free for two years), and Skype already installed fresh out of the box.

Samsung announced today that it is expanding its partnership with Microsoft and will preinstall its apps on “select” Android tablets. In addition to the apps that are preinstalled on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung tablets will come with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint starting in the first half of 2015.

Samsung will also offer Office 365 to businesses that purchase mobile devices from business-to-business sales channels.

"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 Peggy Johnson, Microsoft’s EVP of Business Development. "We believe our suite of premium mobile products coupled with Microsoft's productivity services will offer users the mobility they need in both their personal and business life,” added Samsung EVP SangChul Lee.

With Microsoft treading water in the smartphone market, getting Android users hooked to its software service — by way of Samsung — is actually a pretty savvy move. Samsung is one of the top smartphone OEMs in the world and the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are expected to fly off store shelves during 2015. Add in tablet sales, of which Samsung also has a sizable stake, and it looks as though Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is making all the right moves to turn his company into a cross-platform software powerhouse.