Samsung and Microsoft will team up on a suite of new product integrations, combining their sizeable market powers against Google and Apple.
Microsoft Word recently became one of the rare Android apps not made by Google or Facebook to pass 1 billion downloads, thanks in part to the app often coming pre-installed on new phones.
The new partnership will see Office apps come baked into the Note 10, a device that has historically appealed to business users thanks to its productivity and multi-tasking abilities and stylus support.
The phone’s galley app will also support automatic syncing of photos to OneDrive for backup.
Samsung plans to ship the Note 10 with Microsoft’s Your Phone app pre-installed too, which mirrors text messages and notifications onto Windows 10 PCs.
Microsoft head of mobile and cross-device experiences Shilpa Ranganathan announced this morning the app will also let users make and receive calls from their PC later this year, similar to a feature that allows Mac users to place calls from their computer through a connected iPhone.
Microsoft is also selling the Note 10 in its stores.
The partnership makes sense for the two companies now that they no longer compete in the smartphone space, with Windows abandoning its attempts at getting its mobile operating system to take off.
Samsung uses Google’s Android OS but has previously sought distance from the search giant through its ultimately abandoned Tizen OS and largely ignored Bixby virtual assistant (the dedicated button for which has been abandoned on the new Note devices).
The long awaited Bixby home speaker was conspicuous in its absence from this morning’s Unpacked event and there is still no news on when (or increasingly, if) it will release.
