But, we're far from done. Now we see an opportunity to turn our focus to our device partners - easing mobile access to great apps and services for customers by pre-installing them directly on the device," she wrote.

Samsung's pledge to install Microsoft Office apps on its new Galaxy S6 device was already made plain at Mobile World Congress this year, but the expanded range of devices and deals with the 10 other companies indicate that Microsoft is making headway with its apps across the mobile industry.

On top of that, though, Microsoft is also bundling Office-equipped devices with two years' worth of OneDrive storage, amounting to 100 gigabytes. "Great things happen when you converge services and devices," said Johnson.

But if, as Johnson also said, Microsoft's on-going cross-platform and cross-device strategy aims to "bring an array of Microsoft services to every person on every device", why would happy Android, and even Apple iOS, customers ever consider shifting to Windows Phone?

Microsoft paid a pretty penny - 4.6bn - for Nokia's mobile phone arm back in 2014, and has so far done little but pump out increasingly cheap, closely feature-identical spins on the Lumia formula, while quietly retiring the Nokia brand and pushing "Windows Phone" out as a new name for an, as-yet, unproven mobile phone product.

• Edited by animemnery 51 minutes ago edit