If you’ve been keeping up with Android news this year, then you may have noticed a surprising amount of Microsoft related news involved. Usually, Microsoft is not really in the news for doing things exciting and innovative, well at least they haven’t been for awhile. But ever since Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft, the company has been doing just that, being exciting and innovative. One area in particular that Microsoft has been getting noticed lately like mentioned above is mobile.
You may remember that when the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge were released that they came out of the box with Microsoft apps pre-installed. These apps consisted of Skype, OneDrive, and OneNote, which were all included in a folder named “Microsoft Apps” located on the Galaxy S6’s homescreen. Microsoft has also been releasing beautiful and very functional Android apps that are getting quite a bit of attention in the technology world. It is these types of moves that are making Microsoft relevant again when it comes to mobile.
Microsoft’s latest move in the mobile space was announced today on their blog when they announced quite a few Android tablet partners. More specifically, Microsoft announced that they will be partnering with 20 Android tablet manufacturers to include Microsoft apps on their devices. These new Android tablet partners are as follows; Axdia, Cube, DL, General Procurement, Grupo Nucleo, Haier, Inco, Ionik GBMH, Iview, LG, Multilaser, Noblex, Pacific, Philco, Positivo, Prestigio, Sony, Telecast, TMAX Digital, Wortmannn. Chances are that you probably haven’t heard of most of these manufacturers, but there are a couple familiar ones in there, LG and Sony. Not to mention, it was reported back in March that Samsung tablets were also going to be seeing Microsoft apps included.
The apps that will come pre-installed on these OEM’s tablets are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and Skype. This is quite the suite of Microsoft apps and quite the suite of OEM’s that will be including them on their tablets. Speaking of that, it is important to remember that Microsoft doesn’t only have 20 OEM’s that will be doing this, these are just the 20 new ones that they announced this morning. Collectively Microsoft now has 31 OEM’s that will be including the apps mentioned above on their tablets.