Microsoft reportedly to invest in CyanogenMod Android team

[DanceswithUnix]

Of course this could be just some iPhone wielding finance type in the vast hordes of MS employees decided to lob a few million into something because they thought it looked like a good investment, and they had no idea of the politics they were unleashing

OK this smacks of SCO all over again, but this time for me I don't see how MS can stir things up with this. OTOH, I really do think there is a market for someone taking over support of all those over 2 years old handsets that seem to be abandoned by the companies that made them. I notice our local key cutting/watch battery replacing store now does phone screen replacement. There are people out there that could take care of the upgrade for people that are scared to try it themselves, and there must be a lot of people out there who would like updated phone firmware. Huge untapped market (or Android with Bing).

[crossy]

What I think is that they are not trying to make a version of Android that will run on what are normally Windows devices, but they are trying to support Android users with devices that are no longer being supported through updates to the OS, either because companies like Samsung are concentrating on their latest line up or the hardware has fallen behind the minimum specs baseline. CyanogenMod would usually come to the rescue of these devices and bring them up to date so users can access the latest apps and services, but now it would most likely come with Bing as the default search engine, Outlook as the new e-mail client and a splash screen with the message to say this mod was brought to you by Microsoft on show at every opportunity. The underlying message being that Microsoft can or will do a better job of supporting Android devices than Google.

There are people out there that could take care of the upgrade for people that are scared to try it themselves, and there must be a lot of people out there who would like updated phone firmware. Huge untapped market (or Android with Bing).

Totally agree that there's a "huge untapped market" for upgrades for "orphan" phones, where the manufacturer has got bored and moved onto "next years model" (or in some cases "next HY's model"). But where's the commercial plus? Only way I can see that working is if you go into Timpsons and they flash CyanogenMod with added Microsoft services. As LSG501 said, there's quite a few folks out there for which having in-box access to the Microsoft World would be a plus point.

No, if there is a legitimate reason (other than screwing over Google) then it's this. Take a cheap Chinese phone and put Cyanogen on it, but instead of GApp's you get MSApp's. Then you've leveraged your way into the budget Android market, so Windows Phone's comparative lack of apps isn't a feature - you've grabbed those users. After all we're seeing Microsoft going after cheap-to-mid Android tablets with the latest crop of Windows-based cheapies, and there's also some serious effort going in to undermine Chromebooks. Downside is that unfortunately Play Store is part of GApps, so if you want the Play App Store then you have to get all that other rubbish along with it. However, in markets such as China (and India?) there's other app stores doing local Android apps, so it'd be a snip to slap on one of them. Problem then is in EU/USA - but then again, how about doing a deal with Amazon and use their store? (Especially desirable for Amazon seeing as the Fire Phone turned out to be a lemon).

Best of all, when the owner of that cheap phone comes to upgrade, it'd be a lot easier to sell them on the idea of upgrading to a "better" Windows Phone device, since all their contacts, mails, etc would be easily transferrable.

[jm101]

I'd like to see Microsoft do a one up on Google. It sure would be nice to have multiple sources of updates and fixes.