Microsoft said today in a blog post that they have added 20 new partners to their roster of those who will ship their software on Android tablets. This comes on the heels of the relatively recent stable release of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint for tablets running KitKat or newer. Just earlier this year, Microsoft reached a similar agreement with Samsung, Dell, and several other less-known OEMs. Today's headliners are Sony and LG, but many more are included.

First of all, here's the full list of new partners that will be shipping Android tablets with Microsoft apps and services along with the regions they'll be operating in.

The specific apps to look for are Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneDrive, and Skype. If the just-announced Windows 10 companion app becomes compatible with tablets, I'd expect to see it show up as well. Microsoft says this will apply to an unnamed LG tablet coming in the near future as well as the Sony Xperia Z4 tablet coming in "the next 90 days."

This is bound to be a mutually beneficial relationship. A tablet purchase is easier to justify if you think you can be somewhat productive with it. Microsoft has done a very good job of figuring out how to bring a full office suite experience to the small screen in a usable way. Of course, the Office team needs people to stick to their familiar software rather than branching out to Google's competing options or others.

To be clear, this does not preclude Google Play Services on these devices. While some in smaller markets may choose not to ship with Play, that won't have anything to do with Microsoft. Notice that there is no Bing on board.

Source: Official Microsoft Blog