A couple of months ago, Microsoft very publically announced its new mobile strategy. Microsoft would continue a presence in developing and low-end smartphone seeking areas as it restructured its mobile brand for the future. At the time of the announcement, Microsoft had not clarified exactly how it would both shrink its production of hardware for low-end markets while still maintaining a presence in the area.
With margins for low-end devices continuing to evaporate, Microsoft’s new partnership may be shedding some light on Microsoft plan to keep a presence in the low-end market without engaging in the race to the bottom for hardware.
According to a report from Windows Central, Microsoft and Intext Technologies recently announced their newly formed association. Intext Technologies is India’s second largest smartphone maker and now plans to pre-install and provide OneDrive cloud storage with their Android powered devices.
According to the offer, customers who purchase eligible smartphones will find themselves with 50GB of OneDrive storage free for two years. Intex smartphones such as the Aqua Power Plus or Aqua Star II with 16GB internal storage and 2GB will now don a pre-installed OneDrive app. Other phones such as the Aqua Turbo 4G and Aqua Life III extend the Intext and Microsoft partnership further, bundling not only OneDrive but Skype as well.
The announcement marks the first instance in which an Android smartphone brand in India will be pre-installing and providing OneNote cloud storage to its customers. As Microsoft re-entrenches itself in software, we should expect to hear of more collaborations, associations and partnerships of this nature in the future.
