An Interest In:
Web News this Week
- March 29, 2024
- March 28, 2024
- March 27, 2024
- March 26, 2024
- March 25, 2024
- March 24, 2024
- March 23, 2024
Some of Our Sources
- BoingBoing
- Engadget
- Smashing Magazine
- TutsPlus - Design
- Vandelay Design
- You The Designer
- Inspiredology
- 24 Ways
- CSS Tricks
- Spyre Studios
Help Webnuz
Referal links:
September 18, 2013 08:06 pm GMT
While it’s been obvious for the last few years that Android and iOS have created a two-horse race in the world of smartphone OSs, is it possible that a third could emerge? Microsoft, especially with its recent deal to acquire Nokia’s mobile hardware business, has tried. But perhaps that third horse is going to be an Android variant. The team running Cyanogen, Inc. has been behind one of the most popular Android ROMs in the world — Cyanogen Mod. They’ve just raised $7 million in funding raised by Benchmark Capital to turn what has been a hobby project into a real business pioneering a direct-to-consumer route for delivering a mobile OS. Consumers frustrated with the standard flavor of Android can flash their devices and replace their software experience with Cyanogen Mod, which boasts additional security and personalization features along with better speed. Now they have roughly 8 million users who have installed Cyanogen Mod without any expensive marketing efforts. Beyond those 8 million direct users, other Android variants like Xiaomi’s MiUI leverage Cyanogen Mod so the real reach of the project is several times larger. “This is something that I kind of started for fun when the first generation of Android devices came out,” said co-founder Steve Kondik, who worked on Cyanogen Mod while serving as a staff software engineer at Samsung. “But it just took off and snowballed. And soon people started giving me advice about features that they wanted. We just solved a lot of painful technical problems to do this.” But right now, the install process for Cyanogen Mod is pretty painful. It can take an hour or more. “We’re fighting against the grain a little bit,” Kondik joked. With the funding, the startup is building an installer that’s going to make this process dead simple. “It should be as simple as grabbing an app from the Google Play store,” he said. “You’ll be able to install Cyanogen Mod with essentially with one click.” Kondik believes that Cyanogen Mod could be a ‘mobile OS by the users, for the users.’ The company’s build process and relationship with its users resembles how China’s Xiaomi deals with its rabid fanbase in releasing new versions every single week with features the community suggests. Kondik said that he’d sometimes upload multiple versions of Cyanogen Mod a day to fix bugs. He’d also run into work from his fans. Users would mod
Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dki_6yWAT-s/
Cyanogen Mod Raises $7M To Find A Direct-To-Consumer Route For Android Firmware
While it’s been obvious for the last few years that Android and iOS have created a two-horse race in the world of smartphone OSs, is it possible that a third could emerge? Microsoft, especially with its recent deal to acquire Nokia’s mobile hardware business, has tried. But perhaps that third horse is going to be an Android variant. The team running Cyanogen, Inc. has been behind one of the most popular Android ROMs in the world — Cyanogen Mod. They’ve just raised $7 million in funding raised by Benchmark Capital to turn what has been a hobby project into a real business pioneering a direct-to-consumer route for delivering a mobile OS. Consumers frustrated with the standard flavor of Android can flash their devices and replace their software experience with Cyanogen Mod, which boasts additional security and personalization features along with better speed. Now they have roughly 8 million users who have installed Cyanogen Mod without any expensive marketing efforts. Beyond those 8 million direct users, other Android variants like Xiaomi’s MiUI leverage Cyanogen Mod so the real reach of the project is several times larger. “This is something that I kind of started for fun when the first generation of Android devices came out,” said co-founder Steve Kondik, who worked on Cyanogen Mod while serving as a staff software engineer at Samsung. “But it just took off and snowballed. And soon people started giving me advice about features that they wanted. We just solved a lot of painful technical problems to do this.” But right now, the install process for Cyanogen Mod is pretty painful. It can take an hour or more. “We’re fighting against the grain a little bit,” Kondik joked. With the funding, the startup is building an installer that’s going to make this process dead simple. “It should be as simple as grabbing an app from the Google Play store,” he said. “You’ll be able to install Cyanogen Mod with essentially with one click.” Kondik believes that Cyanogen Mod could be a ‘mobile OS by the users, for the users.’ The company’s build process and relationship with its users resembles how China’s Xiaomi deals with its rabid fanbase in releasing new versions every single week with features the community suggests. Kondik said that he’d sometimes upload multiple versions of Cyanogen Mod a day to fix bugs. He’d also run into work from his fans. Users would modOriginal Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dki_6yWAT-s/
Share this article:
Tweet
View Full Article
Techcrunch
TechCrunch is a leading technology blog, dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news.More About this Source Visit Techcrunch