As part of a patent litigation settlement, hardware maker Asus has agreed to pre-install “Microsoft Office productivity services” on its Android-based smartphones and tablets. ASUS joins Samsung, LG, Sony and 20 or so other manufacturers that signed deals with Microsoft to bundle Office apps on Android devices.
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It also provides “closer integration” between the two companies, and will see Asus pre-load Microsoft’s Office suite on its future Android smartphones and tablets. The deal is also somewhat similar with what happened between Microsoft and Samsung in February this year.
It’s highly speculative at this point, but we can only hope that this partnership will involve Google making apps that work with Windows 10 smartphones.
As Microsoft itself notes, this is actually a broadening of a pre-existing patent licensing agreement between the two companies.
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Details of the agreement between Asus and Microsoft have not yet been disclosed. (ASUS) on Thursday announced the expansion of an earlier patent licensing agreement between the companies. Neither Microsoft nor Google would comment on the terms of the deal, leaving a number of industry watchers wondering whether there might be a few kind of other shoe left to drop. However, we should expect the company’s phones to be loaded with the Redmond giant’s software portfolio’s highlights. These days with Microsoft, I’ll never say never, when it comes to potential partners and deals.
