Microsoft’s own mobile efforts with Windows Phone might be faltering, but the company is pushing ahead with bundling its own apps on lots of different Android devices. Microsoft previously signed deals with Samsung, Sony, Dell, and Asus, and now the company is revealing Acer as the latest to agree to bundling apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, Skype, and OneDrive.
Acer is the latest smartphone maker to bundle Microsoft’s Android apps
is a senior correspondent and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.
The deal, like others with Android OEMs, is part of Microsoft licensing its patents to Acer in exchange for the app bundling. While the exact details of the deal have been kept secret, Microsoft says Acer will start bundling apps in the second half of 2016. Microsoft’s Office apps for iOS and Android have been popular on the rival platforms, having been downloaded more than 100 million times. Microsoft benefits from these bundling deals as more people access its services and apps, with the expectation that they might become part of the 20 million consumers paying to access Office 365.
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