OnePlus ended partnership with Cyanogen and unveils OxygenOS

We talked a lot about OnePlus and the future of the company. And we talked about Cyanogen and their ambitions. Together they seemed to be a powerful tool and it looked like the future was holding even better things for these two Companies. But the industry they assaulted its a difficult, picky and changing one, meaning they both need to grow and adapt. Even more, they both go on separate ways from now on, because OnePlus just ended its partnership with Cyanogen.

After the last year’s scandal between OnePlus and Indian Company Micromax, which resulted in OnePlus One being banned for a short period from selling in India, OnePlus and Cyanogen finally parted. The scandal was actually the result of a misunderstanding between OnePlus and Cyanogen, which did not informed the Chinese manufacturer about their latest collaboration with Micromax; which had an exclusive deal with Cyanogen to sell smartphones in India.

However, a few days ago, OnePlus reported that they have moved on from Cyanogen and they decided to use their own Android-based ROM. Their ROM is called OxygenOS and will be officially unveiled on February 12th. For now, OnePlus One smartphones that have been ordered recently, won’t longer be available with the Cyanogen logo on the back, but OnePlus will still ship its devices with Cyanogen OS, until the release of the OxygenOS.

The OxygenOS, as stated by OnePlus, is designed to provide a “bold, powerful, straight-forward experience.” and also is going to be “open, customizable, and free of bloat and unnecessary features.” This sounds like Cyanogen just won a competitor and after OnePlus has run into legal issues in India because Cyanogen teamed up with Micromax, I wonder how much OnePlus will react against it. After all, OnePlus did touched a sensible spot by saying that they “altered the back covers of all OnePlus Ones to feature a cleaner and more unified look across all regions.”

Now, I don’t know what you think about that, but even if it doesn’t mean a war, it sure does mean that OnePlus is ready to advance in this industry by itself and with its own services that might compete with Cyanogen. And even if there won’t be any big competition between the two, Cyanogen is at risk with their own war against Google and their admirable gut to try and take Android from it.

There is not much to talk about OxygenOS, only that the OS will be an optional installation and it’s based on Android 5.0. OnePlus also stated on their forum that OxygenOS is “simple and pure – a fundamental building block.” and that “it can do amazing things.” This will also open new doors for OnePlus, by being able to distribute their smartphones in India without any conflict with Micromax.

In the present moment, the OnePlus is working to develop their new smartphone, OnePlus Two, which is going to be launched late in 2015.

Source: phonearena.com