Microsoft Reaches Pre-Install Agreement With New OEMs

As of late, Microsoft has been making a subtle but widespread play into the Android ecosystem, with small apps like Bing Torque being the foreshadowing of the larger ones to come, and as it stands, Skype and the three popular office apps – Powerpoint, Excel and Word – are thriving on the Play Store following their public release earlier this year, prior to which the Office suite remained in beta.

Having its top apps on Android was just a stepping stone in Redmond’s larger plan, and in March, a partnership was announced with Samsung that ensured that the South Korean OEM – with the largest userbase worldwide – would pre-install the Office and Skype apps on their tablets. This alone bolstered their popularity, but Microsoft remained relentless in their efforts, and earlier today, two more milestones were reached. The first was the obvious announcement which stated that Cortana is headed to Android, but the second announcement has come unexpected. In a move to further their OEM reach, a number of new partnerships were announced, with small and large OEMs across the world, with the highlights of the release being agreements with Sony and LG. Here’s the full list of OEMs who agreed to pre-install Skype and the Office suite on their devices:

• Axdia International GMBH – Germany
• Cube – China
• DL – Brazil
• General Procurement – United States
• Grupo Nucleo – Argentina
• Haier – China
• Inco – Mexico
• Ionik GBMH – Germany
• Iview – United States and Latam
• LG – Global
• Multilaser – Brazil
• Noblex – Argentina
• Pacific (Vulcan) – Mexico
• Philco – Argentina
• Positivo – Brazil
• Prestigio – EMEA
• Sony – Global
• Teclast – China
• TMAX Digital – North America
• Wortmannn – Germany

It will be interesting to see where Microsoft goes from here in their efforts to expand into the Android ecosystem.

The post Microsoft Reaches Pre-Install Agreement With New OEMs appeared first on xda-developers.

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