Microsoft Cozies Up to Samsung Amid Galaxy S8 Arrival

Microsoft has been working more closely with Samsung lately, which has become increasingly evident since the launch of the new line of Galaxy S8 smartphones this week.

With both companies trying to gain advantages over Apple and Google, the dominant forces in mobile ecosystems, the growing partnership makes strategic sense. Google's Android software (googl, -0.00%) runs on four of the five smartphones around the world and Apple's iOS manages most of the rest. So Microsoft and Samsung can benefit from finding ways to depend more on each other and less on the two mobile giants.

At Samsung's S8 event in New York on Wednesday, the company promoted its desktop phone adapter, the DeX, noting that Microsoft had upgraded its Office applications for Android to work properly with the new feature. That followed last year's agreement to put Windows software on some of Samsung's tablets and a 2015 agreement to pre-install mobile apps like Skype and OneNote on Galaxy phones.

On Thursday, Microsoft said it would sell special versions of the S8 and S8 + directly in its US retail stores. Phones sold by Microsoft are customized to make Microsoft applications more prominent on the home screen and include access to more applications from the software giant than standard S8 models sold elsewhere, such as applications for LinkedIn and Wunderlist.

"A Microsoft customization applies to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 + Microsoft Edition when the devices are out of the box and connected to Wi-Fi," the company said in a statement. "This customization ensures customers a first-class productivity experience with Microsoft applications like Office, OneDrive, Cortana, Outlook and more."

Microsoft's moves to host Samsung and its Android phone ecosystem will not help sales of Microsoft's own mobile devices running Windows 10 versions. In any case, it hurts by making it so easy for users of mobile applications. Microsoft opt ​​for a Galaxy instead of a Windows phone.

But that battle seems long. The Windows share of smartphones worldwide fell to almost a measurable 0.3% by the end of 2016, down from a already minus 1.1% a year earlier, according to Gartner.

And the moves are consistent with CEO Satya Nadella's strategy of moving Microsoft further toward providing software for cloud-based and mobile-based computer applications regardless of the underlying operating system. After all, one of Nadella's first moves after taking office in 2014 was to launch an Office version for the Apple iPad (aapl, -0.13%).