Dell and 10 other Android manufacturers to pre-install Microsoft apps

Following up on Microsoft and Samsung's announcement of Office apps, along with OneDrive and Skype to be pre-installed on some Android tablets, Microsoft has also revealed that Dell and 10 more OEMs will install those apps on their own Android products later in 2015.

While Dell has released PCs, laptops and tablets with Microsoft's Windows OS ever since it started, it has been offering more Android-based products recently, including the Dell Venue 8 7840 Android tablet. Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President, Business Development for Microsoft, is quoted in a blog post as saying:

Earlier today, we announced an expanded global partnership with Samsung to deliver Microsoft mobile productivity services to both consumer and business customers. Building on that news, I'm pleased to share that we've also expanded strategic agreements with leading global OEM Dell, and regional OEMs including TrekStor of Germany, JP Sa Couto of Portugal, Datamatic of Italy, DEXP of Russia, Hipstreet of Canada, QMobile of Pakistan, Tecno of Africa, and Casper of Turkey, as well as top original device manufacturer Pegatron. These 11 hardware partners will pre-install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on Android devices coming to market later this year.For OEMs, these deals will increase the value of and enrich people's experiences on Android devices. Original device manufacturers are important because they extend Microsoft services to the ecosystem. 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.  It is addressing consumer demand for top services by making them already available on a device, instead of requiring consumers to download them separately.

The specific financial terms of each of these new partnerships was not disclosed. There's also no word on what specific devices from these OEMs will feature Microsoft's apps.

Source: Microsoft

John Callaham