Friday, May 04, 2012

(BN) Dropbox Agrees App Deal for Samsung Phones and Tablets

Bloomberg News, sent from my iPhone.

Dropbox Agrees App Deal for Samsung Phones and Tablets

May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Dropbox Inc., a provider of online storage, is partnering with Samsung Electronics Co. to preload its application on smartphones and tablets running Google Inc.'s Android operating system.

The app will come installed on Samsung devices distributed worldwide later this year, said Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, head of mobile business development at Dropbox, in a telephone interview. The announcement of the partnership with the San Francisco-based company is tied to a Samsung event in London today.

Founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, Dropbox has reached more than 50 million users by allowing them to synchronize and share files on any web-enabled device. The app is available for download from Apple Inc. and Google online stores and Dropbox is scouting for more partnership deals as it seeks to expand its customer base.

"We're working with the guys that are most relevant," Fjeldsoe-Nielsen said.

The company has already signed similar partnerhip deals for its app with HTC Corp. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, enabling users to get increased amounts of free storage when they buy the devices.

Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, regained the lead in smartphones from Apple in the first quarter. The maker of the Galaxy range of phones sold 44.5 million handsets in the first quarter, compared with 35.1 million from Apple, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

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Eugene.

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