SEOUL: Samsung is giving its customers access to Microsoft services and apps in its newest smartphones and tablets. At the same time, Samsung is allowing customers to strip away apps and bloatware they don’t want on the company’s newest phones.
Recent posts on the XDA Developers Forum indicate that many pre-installed apps on the upcoming Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones can be removed legally and easily. These apps include Gmail, Google + and YouTube; Samsung’s own S Voice and S Health software; and Microsoft’s OneNote, OneDrive and Skype, as reported by Forbes.
The ability to remove apps from the new smartphones could be a response to widespread criticism that Samsung devices have shipped with too much bloatware. Savvy users have been able to root their own phones to remove the apps, but doing so previously could void a device’s warranty.
Samsung announced that it will pre-install Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, along with other Microsoft services, on some of its Android tablets before July (the company didn’t specify which models). Those tablets will also get OneNote, OneDrive and Skype pre-installed.
The expansion of Microsoft’s software onto Samsung products fits into the overall Microsoft theme of “mobile-first, cloud-first.” In a statement, Peggy Johnson, executive vice president of business development at Microsoft, says the new partnership with Samsung shows an attempt to “bring the best of Microsoft’s productivity services to everyone, on every device — so people can be productive wherever, however and whenever they want.”
