Another day, another plot twist in the Samsung Galaxy S6 saga. First there was a story that Samsung ditched Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip for the S6, then we heard that there will be two versions of flagship, including one with a dual-edged display.
Windows Phone apps might make an appearance on the Galaxy S6. Image credit: Jay McGregor
And now? SamMobile is reporting that Samsung won’t ship the S6 with all of its usual pre-installed apps – instead opting for some of Microsoft’s flagship premium services.
Rumours had surfaced previously that Samsung was slimming down its TouchWiz OS to resemble stock Android, a revision that I fully support. But now it appears that Samsung is going one step further, as Sammobile reports:
“It’s unclear just what kind of apps Samsung has removed. It’s possible that things like S Voice, S Health, S Note or Scrapbook will not be pre-loaded anymore and will instead be offered on the Galaxy Apps store. What’s interesting is that Samsung has apparently pre-installed quite a few Microsoft apps, possibly as a result of the deal the two companies made recently in relation to the patent royalty case they were embroiled in.
The deal SamMobile is referring too is an Android patent licensing agreement between Samsung and Microsoft. Microsoft (together with a number of other companies) own a number of Android-related patents, which means that manufacturers that develop devices running Android often have to pay Microsoft some royalty money. This typically comes in the form of a licensing agreement, such as the one between Samsung and Microsoft.
The two tech giants had been embroiled in a royalty lawsuit, but it was recently settled out of court. Although the details of the settlement have not been released, SamMobile suggests that part of it may have been to include some pre-installed Microsoft apps on Samsung’s soon-to-be flagship.
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