On Monday Microsoft revealed that it was expanding its partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd to pre-install Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote), OneDrive, and Skype, on Samsung’s Android tablets. Adding to that Microsoft also reported that it had forged new partnerships with 11 other Android device makers. While these apps can already be downloaded on Android devices from Google Play, the move further establishes Microsoft’s vision of putting its services and software across all platforms. Outlook for Android is not included as it is still in preview.

In a blog post, Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President, Business Development for Microsoft wrote, “we’ve also expanded strategic agreements with leading global OEM Dell, and regional OEMs including TrekStor of Germany, JP Sa Couto of Portugal, Datamatic of Italy, DEXP of Russia, Hipstreet of Canada, QMobile of Pakistan, Tecno of Africa, and Casper of Turkey, as well as top original device manufacturer Pegatron. These 11 hardware partners will pre-install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on Android devices coming to market later this year.”

In terms of landing the biggest fish there’s no doubt that Samsung is the prize catch. We already know that Samsung is preinstalling OneNote, OneDrive, and Skype on its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge phones from the announcement at the Mobile World Congress 2015, but it’s another big step in the right direction for Microsoft when its Office apps will appear on Samsung’s tablets in the first half of this year, as was reported.

Speaking of the deal Johnson wrote, “Our partnership with Samsung is emblematic of our efforts 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.”

What’s clear is that Microsoft is attempting to attract consumers to its own apps and therefore bypass Google’s own services. Google did something similar when it bundled its own search toolbar in certain Windows apps to pull customers into using Google services.

Photo credit: Microsoft