Cyanogen ends OnePlus partnership, aims at other Chinese vendors

“Two new companies are trying to do crazy stuff, a lot of people collide”, are the words by Steve Kondik from Cyanogen, when he and Kirt McMaster were speaking at Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, about the partnership between the CyanogenMod makers and OnePlus, the smartphone brand that gained all its popularity due to the One smartphone.

If you are a fan of Cyanogen OS, you know you have to look somewhere else now, as Cyanogen and OnePlus part ways, and the former is looking at other Chinese vendors for a bigger opportunity. The modified version of Android has garnered over 50 million users, a big number, and there is for sure a reason why it is liked by so many users – simplicity and customization possibilities.

Last year, the first fight was seen when Cyanogen had signed an exclusive deal with Micromax, for the devices under the brand name “Yu’, and that led to OnePlus not getting the CyanogenMod updates to OnePlus One. The smartphone manufacturer did have to make its OxygenOS, but now it seems that the same new OS will be the resort for OnePlus Two, not just in India but internationally as well.

“It’s a great way for them to build some identity outside of China using a brand that’s already reasonably well known,” said Kirt McMaster, Cyanogen’s CEO. “Without Cyanogen, OnePlus would have sold like one device in international markets,” “Essentially they built their brand on the back of Cyanogen.”

Cyanogen has been seeing a good few months in the past, as they were also able to manage getting Microsoft as one of the partners. While saying how the partnership is ending here, Cyanogen is still going to provide support for those OnePlus units that have its OS running already.

“That’s probably the last you will see from that partnership unfortunately,” he said. “Two new companies are trying to do crazy stuff, a lot of people collide.”

The ultimate goal of Cyanogen is to ship more devices, and thus, they are looking at more vendors in China, who are capable of providing bigger numbers. “OnePlus shipped reasonable volume, but nothing compared to what some of these other partners can ship,” … “we are working with partners that can scale much quicker.”

If you are someone following tech for the past few months, you know this was coming. But for many, this might be a surprise, and a certain deal breaker if you were looking at Cyanogen OS as a reason to buy a smartphone from OnePlus, a fairly new brand from China.