Microsoft will be selling its own ‘edition’ of the Samsung Galaxy S8

Earlier this week, Samsung officially unveiled the Galaxy S8. While we knew a lot about the device well in advance, there were some surprises. Firstly, was the announcement of Samsung DeX, which we went in to detail on yesterday. The second surprise though, was that Samsung had teamed up with Microsoft to sell a ‘Microsoft Edition' Galaxy S8.

This isn't quite like back in the day, when certain flagship smartphone makers would team up with Google for ‘Google Play Edition' smartphones. The Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition still runs Android paired with Touch Wiz, so what's the difference?

Well, Microsoft's version comes pre-loaded with certain Microsoft apps and services, like Office, OneDrive, Cortana, Outlook, Skype on more. However, this version of the Galaxy S8 will only be available via Microsoft's brick and mortar stores in the United States.

There is no word on how much Microsoft plans to charge for its own version of the Galaxy S8, but this seems to be yet another step in Microsoft's ‘device and service' initiative, which came into play when Satya Nadella took over as CEO a few years back.

KitGuru Says: I'm not sure why anyone would choose to buy a pre-loaded ‘Microsoft Edition' of the Galaxy S8, unless it was somehow cheaper than Samsung's regular version. In all, it seems like a peculiar way for Microsoft to try and gain a foothold in the mobile space. Time will tell if it pays off though.

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