Cyanogen and Microsoft today announced a strategic partnership that will see the former pre-load apps from the Redmond company on its open source OS. In turn, Microsoft will create “native integrations on Cyanogen OS, enabling a powerful new class of experiences.” The partnership will see Cyanogen Inc. include Bing services, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook and Microsoft Office in Cyanogen OS. Cyanogen Inc’s CEO, Kirk McMaster, had earlier revealed that the company wants to create an open source version of Android that will be better than Google’s Android. “We aspire to have our tools within arm’s reach of everyone, to empower them in all aspects of their lives. This partnership represents another important step towards that ambition,” said Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President of Microsoft Corp. “We’ll continue to deliver world-class experiences across productivity and communications on Windows, and we’re delighted that Cyanogen users will soon be able to take advantage of those same powerful services.” Microsoft apps are now being pre-loaded by a lot of Android OEMs in their devices. By pre-loading apps on their devices, OEMs are able to pay less royalties to Microsoft for some of its patents, which leads to a win-win situation for both parties.
