Those who have been following the latest mobile developments in India might have noticed a small drama unfolding. Chinese startup OnePlus has just targeted the sub-continent but, at the same time, Cyanogen, Inc, who develops the OnePlus One‘s software, struck up an exclusive deal with Indian OEM Micromax. After some speculation, as well as a blog post from OnePlus, the Android ROM maker is now clearing the air and explaining how things will proceed.
The issue at hand is that Cyanogen has chosen Micromax as the exclusive hardware partner for Cyanogen OS, the commercial version of the popular CyanogenMod Android ROM, in India. This coincided with OnePlus’ own entry into the Indian market, via a partnership with Amazon India. For its part, OnePlus says it was surprised and dismayed at Cyanogen’s move, since it theoretically meant that OnePlus’ would be customers in India would be bereft of Cyanogen updates.
Not quite, according to Cyanogen. It says that all devices around the world running its OS will continue to receive OTA updates, even in India. So just because a OnePlus One happens to be in the country doesn’t mean it will suddenly be left out of the update party. That said, other than the OnePlus One, those in India should probably not expect new commercial devices running Cyanogen OS except from Mircomax and its new YU brand.
That is definitely welcome news for OnePlus One fans in India and is definitely a more reasonable expectation. What remains to be seen now is whether OnePlus will still push through with its plans to have its own OS for OnePlus Two/OnePlus One Two, which might still be likely if relationships between the two startups have indeed taken a downturn.
SOURCE: Cyanogen, Inc.
