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29 March 2024

Microsoft targets Android users aggressively

Office 2016 for Mac is now available in 139 countries and in 19 languages. (Reuters)

Published
By Joseph George

Microsoft has decided to target Android users aggressively. Just after it announced that several of its key apps would be pre-installed on Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, it has now announced plans to get inside many more Samsung devices and several other Android devices.

The Redmond-based firm which has been struggling with sales of Windows-based mobile devices made an announcement to this effect.

“Samsung is planning to pre-install Microsoft services and apps on its portfolio of Android devices and will deliver secured mobile productivity for businesses through a new Microsoft Office 365 and Samsung Knox Business Pack,” it said in a statement today.

Pre-installed services will come with OneNote, OneDrive and Skype apart from Office for Android which includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge will also come with 100 GB of additional free cloud storage for two years through Microsoft OneDrive, allowing extra storage space.

Businesses that purchase devices through Samsung’s business-to-business sales channels will have access to three versions of Office 365 – Business, Business Premium and Enterprise – coupled with Samsung’s Knox security solution.

The bundle also includes a setup service from Samsung to help businesses get up and running with products and provides ongoing support.

Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice-President, Business Development at Microsoft, also announced that it will not just be Samsung that Microsoft will be working with as its plans its aggressive foray into the Android world. Microsoft has partnered with eleven other hardware partners including Dell.

“I’m pleased to share that we’ve also expanded strategic agreements with leading global OEM Dell, and regional OEMs….. These partners will pre-install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on Android devices coming to market later this year,” she said.

Among the partners are TrekStor of Germany, JP Sa Couto of Portugal, Datamatic of Italy, DEXP of Russia, Hipstreet of Canada, QMobile of Pakistan, Tecno of Africa, and Casper of Turkey, as well as top original device manufacturer Pegatron.

The latest move by Microsoft comes amidst reports of declining PC sales. PC sales across the world have witnessed a slowdown and the numbers are expected to drop further during the coming years.

According to the latest report form IDC, total PC shipments are expected to contract by 4.9 per cent in 2015, mainly driven by lower-than-expected demand for desktop and portable PCs.

Another report by Gartner says that the global computing devices market (PCs and ultramobiles) will sell 7 million less units in 2015 compared to last year with revenues falling by almost 7.2 per cent.

It was just last week that Microsoft announced that it plans to roll out its Windows 10 for free to everyone who has installed an earlier version of Windows OS be it legal or pirated.

What that means is that almost 1.5 billion users who currently use the OS will be able to get an upgrade for free, making illegal installation almost irrelevant.

The mobile phone market on the other hand continues to grow overtaking desktops and laptops.

It is expected to total 1.9 billion mobile units were sold in 2014 and is expected to grow by 3.5 per cent in 2015.

Outlining the company`s strategy Johnson in her blog post said that for Microsoft its all about winning over the hearts and minds of customers.

In the past year, Microsoft, she said has made a series of moves to this effect. “We’ve re-engineered many of our flagship products to be more modern, we’ve acquired companies that are rethinking traditional categories of productivity, and we’ve made some of our most popular services more readily available than ever.”

The strategy she said is simply to offer the services across all major platforms.

“We’ve proven that we’re not afraid to look outside ourselves to reinvent ourselves. We’ve received fantastic customer feedback for making Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype available across all platforms. But, we’re far from done. Now we see an opportunity to turn our focus to our device partners – easing mobile access to great apps and services for customers by pre-installing them directly on the device,” she adds.