Microsoft brings Surface, Lumia to Special Olympics in multimillion dollar partnership

Microsoft announced a three-year multimillion dollar partnership to contribute devices and cloud technology to the Special Olympics in a bid to modernize the non-profit's technology. As part of the deal, Microsoft will provide 800 Surface tablets and 1,200 Lumia smartphones to the organization to track events at the 2015 World Games in Los Angeles in addition to a financial donation.

Microsoft will also provide a cloud-based game management system with Azure.

"The Special Olympics' goal of creating a better world by fostering the acceptance and inclusion of all people is something we believe in here at Microsoft," said Lisa Brummel, Microsoft's executive vice president of Human Resources. "I am thrilled about our partnership with the Special Olympics over the next few years and our opportunity to contribute both technology and financial support to help them run their organization."

In addition to providing devices and services, Microsoft also pledged $1 million over the life of the partnership.

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Source: Microsoft; Microsoft News Center

Chuong Nguyen

Chuong's passion for gadgets began with the humble PDA. Since then, he has covered a range of consumer and enterprise devices, raning from smartphones to tablets, laptops to desktops and everything in between for publications like Pocketnow, Digital Trends, Wareable, Paste Magazine, and TechRadar in the past before joining the awesome team at Windows Central. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, when not working, he likes exploring the diverse and eclectic food scene, taking short jaunts to wine country, soaking in the sun along California's coast, consuming news, and finding new hiking trails.