Microsoft to Appear at Galaxy Note 10 Launch

Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft will demonstrate Office and Your Phone integration at the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 launch next week.

“Samsung and Microsoft have … recently updated their partnership agreement, which ultimately could result in Samsung selling some of its phones pre-installed with Microsoft Android apps, including Your Phone for connecting phones to Windows 10 PCs,” Foley writes.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

As part of this friendlier new partnership, Microsoft will demonstrate how Note 10 users can utilize its mobile Office and Your Phone Companion apps to integrate the device with Windows 10 PCs. Foley wonders aloud—as I do—if this will result in versions of these apps specially tailored for the Galaxy Fold and its unique folding display as well.

Microsoft has at times sold Galaxy handsets in its retail stores, and it has offered an optional service by which customers could download a software image that installed various Microsoft apps. And Samsung has bundled small numbers of Microsoft mobile apps on select handsets and tablets. But the partnership has never really resulted in the broad distribution of Microsoft apps on Samsung’s phones. So any escalation of this bundling could be a big deal for Microsoft in particular.

That said, the software giant is no failure in mobile, despite the defeat of Windows Phone. Microsoft currently has several mobile apps that have received 500 million or more downloads on mobile. And as of this moment, it has the top-downloaded app (Mixer) and game (Minecraft) on mobile, thanks to this past week’s partnership with game streamer Ninja. Getting more Microsoft apps preinstalled on Samsung handsets could provide a similar bump.

I also know that there is a faction within Microsoft that has the political clout to push a Microsoft-branded Android phone line forward to production. Whether that happens or not is very much in the air, but it is clearly a concern for certain parties within the company. It is likewise clearly not a concern for many others. But a successful partnership with Samsung could perhaps negate the need for a Microsoft-branded phone, since Samsung is the world’s biggest maker of smartphones.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 15 comments

  • the escalation

    03 August, 2019 - 8:55 am

    <p><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"I also know that there is a faction within Microsoft that has the political clout to push a Microsoft-branded Android phone line forward to production."</em></p><p><br></p><p>I would love to see this happen. Knowing Microsoft, I don't have my hopes up, but churn out a suitable mid-ranger and I'd buy one in a heartbeat.</p>

    • faustxd9

      Premium Member
      04 August, 2019 - 2:22 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#447213">In reply to the escalation:</a></em></blockquote><p>It would be nice to get a good working phone without it sending everything you do to Google or Samsung. </p>

    • jdmp10

      05 August, 2019 - 12:21 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#447213">In reply to the escalation:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Microsoft can easily license their name to a ODM like Foxconn, similar to what HMD has done with the Nokia licensing after buying it from Microsoft. It would mean that Microsoft could oversee certain physical design elements of the phone and the software experience, which would most likely be running Microsoft Launcher out of the box and maybe a tighter integration to Microsoft services then we've seen as just a third party launcher and Your Phone Companion app. I don't see why Microsoft just didn't hang onto the Nokia mobile brand and do what HMD has done after they liquidated the Nokia factories and all that manufacturing overhead.</p>

  • hidp123

    03 August, 2019 - 11:10 am

    <p>They need to come up with a oneplus or Google pixel 3a type android phone: great phones, yet affordable and with acceptable compromises.</p><p><br></p><p>And they need to attract the dev community like oneplus and the Google nexus line.</p><p><br></p><p>No point joining the race at the top, not yet anyways.</p>

    • drewidian

      05 August, 2019 - 11:49 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#447220">In reply to hidp123:</a></em></blockquote><p>An Xbox branded phone that comes with 6 months or a year of XCloud would be a huge advantage. It could be optimized and if priced right could be a hit. I'd also like to see the new Minecraft AR World optimized on entry to mid level devices. It could be a hit with that young educational community. </p>

  • harmjr

    Premium Member
    03 August, 2019 - 3:57 pm

    <p>I wish they would sell a Microsoft branded Galaxy phone where it's launcher was the stock one.</p>

    • wolters

      Premium Member
      05 August, 2019 - 11:34 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#447226">In reply to harmjr:</a></em></blockquote><p>Absolutely agree. The problem I always have when running a launcher over another one that it is usually inevitable that when one of those launchers update, it will reset the defaults on them. Not a big issue for us tech people but like for my parents, 900 miles away from us, it will confuse the heck out of them. I recently set them up on a few phones and thought about Microsoft Launcher but wanted to avoid that situation. </p>

  • drewidian

    05 August, 2019 - 11:44 am

    <p>I use Your Phone with my Galaxy Note 8 and it's definitely a useful tool. I'm looking forward to the event as I'm ready for an upgrade.</p>

    • wolters

      Premium Member
      05 August, 2019 - 12:40 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#447407">In reply to drewidian:</a></em></blockquote><p>Samsung has tried something like YourPhone for many years and it just never gained traction nor could you use anything out side of Samsung Messages to make it work. So glad they are embracing this. </p>

  • mikes_infl

    05 August, 2019 - 1:04 pm

    <p>It will be very interesting to see how well the Note 10 might perform with Microsoft Android apps under DeX Live.</p>

    • aretzios

      06 August, 2019 - 1:14 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#447414">In reply to mikes_infl:</a></em></blockquote><p>There is no need to wait for it. Dex was integral part of Tab S4 and the MS applications perform OK under Dex. These applications are really not outstanding. They are just fine for the limited work that one can achieve with phones and tablets but they fall substantially below the capabilities of the real desktop applications. If Samsung wants to elevate DeX to an Android Desktop OS status, it would need to develop something more effective. </p>

  • 1speed

    05 August, 2019 - 3:33 pm

    <blockquote>After reading Mehedi's review on the Samsung announcement, I loaded an update of Your phone and the issue seems to be resolved. Sounds like lots of cool features coming but the app in its current state is worth installing if you live on your desktop.</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • proesterchen

    06 August, 2019 - 3:18 am

    <p>Let's not mince words here:</p><p><br></p><p>Microsoft is and has been leveraging it's presumably Linux-based licensing agreement with Samsung to install bloatware on tens of millions of users' phones.</p>

  • carlrhorn

    Premium Member
    06 August, 2019 - 4:47 pm

    <p>U and Mary Jo going to the rattle and Humm after the event for a meet up? </p>

  • Curtis Quick

    07 August, 2019 - 3:41 am

    <p>I would love to see Microsoft come out with an Android phone that runs the Windows phone UI. I would snatch that up as soon as I could. I am still using my Lumia 950XL and would hate to have to lose my live tiles when I replace it. Alternately, if Microsoft worked with vendors like Samsung and OnePlus to make an Windows Phone UI on an Android image that is tailored to each vendor's flagship phone that would make me just as happy.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC