Joining the ranks of several other retailers, the Microsoft Store is now offering the new Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ for pre-order. The unlocked variants of both phones will start shipping on March 16th, like other retailers. The S9 is priced at $719.99 while the S9+ is $839.99.
The addition of these new Samsung phones falls in line with what the company did with the S8 last year, offering it as a pre-order. With the S7, they made a “Microsoft version” of the phone that came with several of the company’s apps pre-installed.
In the case of the S9’s, you are getting the unlocked phones but none of the Microsoft apps pre-installed as Samsung and Microsoft had a little spat about that. Instead, when you go to the product page on the Microsoft Store site, you will see a lot of advertising of how you can use the Microsoft Launcher with the Samsung Galaxy S9 and how well the Microsoft Office 365 apps run on the devices.
Microsoft has been shifting their mobile strategy away from their own devices given that Windows 10 Phone is all-but dead, and is instead focusing on how their apps can run on devices. The store now sells more Android based phones than Windows based, a shift that happened last year.
If you want to get your S9 from Microsoft, head over to their online store or to your local retail store location.
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