Microsoft is pushing their Office platform further with an annoucement today that will see their Office suite pre-installed on tablets from the likes of Sony, LG and other vendors, furthering their existing arrangement with Samsung and Dell announced in March.
The core agreement appears to be the same as we saw with the Dell and Samsung deal, with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype being pre-installed on tablets. The first of the rank is the new Sony Xperia Z4 tablet which will carry all these apps as part of the default load.
In all, there are 31 companies who Microsoft have signed up for the deal, though Sony and LG are by far the largest. The other companies who will include Office titles are:
- Axdia International GMBH – Germany
- Cube – China
- DL – Brazil
- General Procurement – United States
- Grupo Nucleo – Argentina
- Haier – China
- Inco – Mexico
- Ionik GBMH – Germany
- Iview – United States and Latam
- LG – Global
- Multilaser – Brazil
- Noblex – Argentina
- Pacific (Vulcan) – Mexico
- Philco – Argentina
- Positivo – Brazil
- Prestigio – EMEA
- Sony – Global
- Teclast – China
- TMAX Digital – North America
- Wortmannn – Germany
Microsoft has advised that they intend to bring other companies on board with the arrangement, so we could be seeing even more tablets with Office pre-installed in the near future.
