Mobile phone operating system Cyanogen was supposed to be making its first foray into India under the bonnet of the OnePlus phone.
In the US OnePlus’ One smartphone has used Cyanogen, which is an operating system built atop Google’s Android, but it looks like that will not be happening in India.
Cyanogen has instead chosen to go with Micromax, an OEM more familiar to the Indian market. Cyanogen and Micromax also have an exclusive deal.
The deal makes sense. Cyanogen Micromax is perhaps the largest player in the Indian smartphone market. Cyanogen likely struck a deal to make inroads in the emerging market, shunning OnePlus in the process.
One Plus is a little cross saying that Cyanogen, put countless hours of work into making this launch a success. Just last month, on October 7, Cyanogen released the 38R OTA update which included SAR values inside phone settings to comply with Indian regulations.
“ It was surprising and disappointing to hear from Cyanogen on November 26 that they had granted exclusive rights in India over the Cyanogen system to another company. Prior to this, OnePlus and Cyanogen have successfully cooperated to release the OnePlus One or carry out commercial operations in 17 countries and regions (including India). It is truly unfortunate that a commitment we both made to our Indian users will now not be upheld, OnePlus.
Cyanogen has unequivocally committed to continuing this global support and we look forward to working with them for another year on continuously improving our device.
It said that its concern was its Indian users “who may feel disappointed or deceived.”
“We can’t explain Cyanogen’s decision because we don’t fully understand it ourselves. But we can explain exactly how we’ll continue offering our fans in India an amazing user experience and support for this device,” the company said.
One Plus says it will have its own OS built on Android Lollipop for India. Once ready, One Plus will set up shops in India to help users port their devices to the new OS, and offer online instructions for doing so. Cyanogen will continue to support One Plus devices elsewhere in the world.
