Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ Microsoft Edition to Release on April 21

Microsoft's apps like OneDrive, OneNote, and Skype have been bundled with Samsung smartphones for quite some time but the collaboration between the two companies seems to be moving a notch higher with South Korean company's Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones. Microsoft has announced that it will be selling a Microsoft Edition of both these smartphones through its retail stores and has already started taking pre-orders for the devices from Thursday.

The Redmond-based company is planning to offer its own customised version of Galaxy S8 smartphones, the company confirmed to The Verge. "A Microsoft customisation is applied to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ Microsoft Edition when the devices are unboxed and connected to Wi-Fi," a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge. "This customisation ensures customers a best-in-class productivity experience with Microsoft applications such as Office, OneDrive, Cortana, Outlook and more," the spokesperson added.

Interestingly, Microsoft will be adding Cortana voice-based virtual assistant to its own edition of Galaxy S8 smartphones, which already come with Samsung's Bixby apart from Google Assistant offered by Android. This means users will get a choice of three digital assistants - something that might pose complications for the user.

The Microsoft Edition of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones will be made available for purchase on April 21, Microsoft spokesperson told Engadget. The Microsoft editions of the devices, when connected to the Wi-Fi for the first time, will start downloading the custom software and install them, Engadget reports. While regular versions of the phones will come with Microsoft Office apps, the Microsoft editions will additionally feature Cortana, Excel, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, Bing, Groove, Skype, MSN News and more, as per the report.