Perhaps considered by few as an unlikely partnership, however it has been announced that both Samsung and Microsoft are to come together to offer the software giants dedicated mobile productivity services to even more consumers and business customers by pre-installing their applications on Samsung Android devices.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 and also the Galaxy S6 Edge respectively will feature Microsoft apps and services including; OneNote, OneDrive and also Skype. Later in the first quarter of this year, Samsung have also announced that they will be including more Microsoft products and services; in addition to OneNote, OneDrive and Skype, users will also be able to take advantage of having mobile versions of apps included in Microsoft’s Office suite, they are; Word, Excel and also PowerPoint.
In a move to try and get Samsung users to adopt some of Microsoft’s paid for services, anyone who purchases a Samsung Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S6 Edge will be able to take advantage of an offer that allows them to have 100GB of free cloud storage for 2 years. After that period, users can then decide to subscribe to Microsoft’s OneDrive service in they wish.
For business users that purchase Samsung devices though Samsung’s business-to-business sales channels will have access to three different versions of Office 365 – Business, Business Premium and Enterprise. In addition, business users will also be able to utilise Samsung’s KNOX security solution.
“Great things happen when you converge services and devices,” said Peggy Johnson, executive vice president of business development, 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.”
“Our goal is to meet the ever-evolving needs of both consumers and business customers and give them more power to discover new mobile experiences,” said SangChul Lee, executive vice president of the Strategic Marketing Office, IT & Mobile Division at Samsung Electronics. “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.”
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