Microsoft cuts deal with Lenovo to bundle apps on Lenovo's Android smartphones and tablets

As Windows Phone slowly dies, Microsoft seeks out Android partnerships to distribute its apps

Microsoft and Lenovo have struck a deal that will see the Beijing-based company bundle Microsoft apps with its Android smartphones and tablet computers.

The deal includes the Office applications suite, OneDrive cloud storage and the popular communications app Skype, which Microsoft itself is discontinuing on its own Windows Phone operating system.

The deal also includes a patent cross-licensing agreement, which presumably means that, specifically, Lenovo is paying Microsoft a royalty for Microsoft intellectual property wrapped up in Android. Other intellectual property deals that Microsoft has cut with device makers include Samsung and HTC, as well as multiple smaller vendors. Microsoft has deals with 75 makers of Android devices in total.

Indeed, Microsoft was keen to play up the company's "commitment to licensing intellectual property" in its announcement. The company claims to have signed more than 1,200 licensing agreements since 2003, when the then CEO Steve Ballmer set up the company's licensing programme. Then, the programme was believed to be aimed at open-source operating system Linux.

Microsoft started focusing on device makers in 2010 as Google's free Android operating system started to become more popular as an alternative to Apple's iPhone. Today, Android accounts for more than 85 per cent of the mobile operating system market and is arguably more widely used than Microsoft's own Windows operating system.

The Lenovo deal covers both devices produced under the Lenovo brand, as well as Motorola Mobility, which it acquired from Google 2014

"Microsoft's thrilled that our productivity apps will be pre-installed on Lenovo's premium devices," said Nick Parker, corporate vice president of Microsoft's OEM division.

"The marriage of Microsoft's apps and Lenovo's Android-based devices will enable customers around the world to be more productive, more connected and achieve even more."