Read more.Quote:
"We're going to take Android away from Google," asserts Cyanogen chief.
Printable View
Read more.Quote:
"We're going to take Android away from Google," asserts Cyanogen chief.
Dual-boot Surfaces? An end to Windows Mobile?
Wondering what else Microsoft hope to get for their $70m....
A bigger market share for Bing (maybe even Cortana) on Android and the resultant advertising revenue?Quote:
Originally Posted by shaithis
I would be surprised if that amounted to much of a return given:Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian224
Given this fact, I wonder what the deal is with Amazon seeing as they go to lengths to block the Play Store.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hexus
Personally I think there's little chance of Microsoft allowing Android dual-boot on their hardware, and ZERO chance of them dropping Windows Phone in favour of Android.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaithis
I'm pretty sure that this is a partly-cynical move by Microsoft to support an Android competitor. However, I think that Cyanogen being able to do a successful OS sans Google is pretty remote - all the folks that I know running Cyanogen put on GApps as the first step. And a mobile OS with an alternative app store is not appealing - after all if someone as large as Amazon can't make it work successfully then some two-bit operation like Cyanogen isn't going to be able to either.
My understanding was that Amazon just got a copy of the publically-available Android sources and used that as the basis of that "FireOS" of theirs. Still think it was a pretty moronic idea and they would have been a lot better to have got "proper" Android and tried to do a good reciprocal deal with Google.Quote:
Originally Posted by Biscuit
The investment round is $70M, Microsoft are just one investor and it looks like they aren't saying how big a slice they have taken.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaithis
If MS are now involved I think i'll be staying away from CM from now on. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if GCHQ advised them to buy a large stake in CM just so they have another level of surveillance.
CyanogenMod Team should be good as MS is investing in it
You know what..... I wouldn't mind a 'stock' android experience without google (except play store obviously) where we could utilise MS's services instead.
When I look at my usage scenario I don't really use gmail, I use hotmail for syncing my calendar/contacts, I use ms office for office work, I use onedrive more than any other cloud storage (still not much) and windows as my os. I only really use google for music storage (free remote backup mainly as I use my nas for this).
I've already 'disabled' google calendar on my phone, I never use gmail on the phone and I intend to try and use ms for contact sync when I update to lollipop instead of extra desktop software to sync gmail/outlook.
Not to mention I won't add my work email to my phone purely due to concerns over how much info google can scan.... google now is now working with select third party software.
Microsoft being Microsoft lol
Can't help but think that this isn't good news.
I think this is a clever move on Microsoft's part.
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.
It is, and it isn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueScream
MS being "involved" with CM isn't, BUT .... anything that provides a serious attempt at deGooglifying Android can only be good.
Hey, I think I just invented a word. :D
Degooglified, meaning to remove a pain in the Googlies or removal of the Googlies? :eek::surprised:Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
The removal of Google (second g is important) from my life. ;)
Ugh... I was thinking about trying Cyanogen Mod out on a phone someday. But there's just no damn way now... Starting to feel like the only way is to learn to code your own programs these days lol...
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 :D
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).
Quote:
Originally Posted by KeyboardDemon
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix
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.
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.