Samsung to bundle Your Phone with its Galaxy Note 10 as part of its extended Microsoft partnership
Samsung Unpacked
As expected, Microsoft and Samsung announced an extension of their existing partnership this week. The pair are working together to more tightly integrate Microsoft Outlook, OneDrive and its Your Phone app with Samsung's just-announced Galaxy Note 10 phones. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared on stage with Samsung officials at the Samsung Unpacked event to show the importance of the announcements to Microsoft, which no longer has a mobile phone platform of its own.
Samsung also announced at the August 7 Unpacked event in New York City its Galaxy Book S, a $999 ARM-based laptop that runs Windows 10 and serves as yet another device in the Galaxy continuum of phones and tablets. The 13.3-inch Galaxy Book S will feature the Snapdragon 8cx processor and be available starting in September in select markets.
Microsoft officials said the Galaxy Book S was developed in partnership with Microsoft and Qualcomm and will include built-in LTE connectivity and connectivity between phones and PCs using Microsoft's Your Phone technology.
Microsoft will be selling the Galaxy Note 10 in its online and brick-and-mortar stores. Users can pre-order them there starting August 23, and will be able to trade in "select" mobile devices for up to $650 value to use toward the purchase of a new Galaxy Note 10.
On the Galaxy Note 10, users will be able to tie together their phones with Windows 10 PCs using a "Link to Windows 10" button on their phones or using the Your Phone apps on their PCs. The Microsoft Your Phone app allows users to see and interact with the latest phone pictures, texts, and notifications on their PCs.
Later this month, Galaxy Note 10 users also will be able to use the Phone screen feature, which allows users to mirror their phone screens on their PCs and use their PC keyboards, mouse and touch screens to interact directly with their phone apps. Microsoft also will add "later this year" the ability to make and receive mobile phone calls directly from their PCs using the Your Phone technology.
Samsung and Microsoft are making it so OneDrive will be natively integrated into the Samsung Gallery app, so users can more easily sync photos and videos with OneDrive from their Samsung devices. Samsung also has agreed to pre-install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook on the Galaxy Note 10. Update (August 8): To be precise, "The Note10 phones will come pre-loaded with the Office Mobile app, which allows you to view documents and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. This app has been preloaded on several Samsung phones since earlier this year," a Microsoft spokesperson told me, in response to me double-checking whether the key Office apps would be pre-loaded.
Samsung also announced at Unpacked that its Dex feature soon would enable users to connect their phones to Windows 10 PCs (and Macs) using a USB cable so that users can use their phone apps directly on their PCs like they already can do with larger displays.
Microsoft and Samsung began their relationship on a rocky note earlier this decade when the two were embroiled in a patent-licensing dispute. By 2015, Microsoft and Samsung were on the road to pre-installing Microsoft apps and services on Samsung devices.