Samsung, Microsoft Renew Partnership Ahead of Galaxy Note 10 Event: Report

Ahead of Samsung’s Unpacked event slated to be held next week in Brooklyn, the Seoul-based tech giant has reportedly updated its partnership with software major Microsoft. The partnership is expected to result in Samsung selling some of its smartphones pre-installed with Microsoft Android apps, including the “Your Phone” app that connects phones with Windows 10 PCs, ZDNet reported on Friday.

At the event, Microsoft is being speculated to be demonstrating how its various Office apps would work on the coming wave of Samsung phones.

While Samsung has not addressed the reports, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company had nothing to share, the report added.

In 2011, Samsung and Microsoft settled their patent-licensing dispute, with Samsung agreeing to pay Microsoft for licensing patents upon which Android allegedly infringed. In 2013, Samsung was paying Microsoft $1 billion per year in patent-licensing royalties.

Later in 2015, Microsoft and Samsung “expanded their partnership” with Samsung agreeing to pre-install certain Microsoft services and apps on its Android devices.

Samsung officials had agreed to install Microsoft apps like OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Samsung also agreed to pre-install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on select Samsung Android tablets.