According to a report from ZDNet, Samsung is preparing to announce a major expansion of its partnership with Microsoft. So much so, Redmond officials are expected to take the stage at Samsung’s Unpacked event in New York City next week. While the focus of the event will likely be the latest Galaxy Note smartphone. Microsoft’s role will be to show how Office apps and Your Phone are integrated directly into upcoming Samsung smartphones. More outlandish rumors surrounding Microsoft and Android have often suggested the company will build its own Android smartphone. That is probably not going to happen, so collaborating more deeply with Samsung is a major step as the company is the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Microsoft has been partnering with Samsung for the last few Galaxy S iterations. This has meant the companies apps have appeared on handsets since the Galaxy S6 dropped several of years ago. The apps users can find are Microsoft’s Office suite of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and Skype.
Search Adoption
One thing we will be interested to see is whether Samsung is willing to actively push Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Just last week, we reported on Microsoft and other search providers needing to pay Google to appear on a choice menu for default search on Android devices. Google has been forced into the move by European regulators. Microsoft will likely bid to have Bing appear on the screens. Maybe Samsung will play a role in that situation. We will know more when the Unpacked event kicks off in New York next week.
