The news: Samsung unveiled three new phones and three tablets with incrementally upgraded features at its Unpacked event yesterday, but its announcement of a slew of partnerships across apps, products, and services is what will give its devices a competitive edge.

More on this: While there were no breakthrough innovations at this year’s Unpacked, the leading smartphone maker did upgrade its Galaxy S22 phones and Galaxy Tab 8 tablets with more professional features—including interoperability with Microsoft Windows 11— as well as advanced functionality in apps like Snap and YouTube.

• The latest Samsung Galaxy devices seem like a rehash of previous years, but with fancier cameras, more powerful processors, and more premium materials. The minimal advances in the latest Galaxies and iPhones indicates the industry has reached peak smartphone. 
• Samsung’s renewed focus on openness and collaboration reflected a very different approach from rival Apple and its closed ecosystem.
• The company highlighted partnerships with Google, Microsoft, Snap, YouTube, and Luma Touch for deeply integrated software optimized for Samsung’s new hardware. 
• Samsung declared Google Duo as its chosen video chat client, Microsoft’s OneNote as the S Pen stylus’s best note-taking option, and OneDrive as its photo backup and sharing service. 

The big takeaway: Samsung focusing on improving the hardware of its devices while relying on partnerships to add deeper functionality can go a long way in securing user loyalty tied to apps and experiences rather than devices, which now seem all too similar.

• Samsung no longer has to create its own software derivatives and can now develop its hardware in tandem with partners that can optimize exclusive experiences for users.
• Google, Microsoft, and Snap now have deeply integrated Samsung smartphone devices to showcase what their apps and services can do. 

What’s next? Samsung’s open invitation to collaborate and co-develop experiences for its devices could go a long way in security, user loyalty, and valuable industry partnerships. Those relationships could continue to fill software gaps while giving partners an established hardware platform to develop their solutions on.