What does Oppo and CyanogenMod partnership mean for Android?
It’s a small piece of news (that probably didn’t reach anyone, but Android enthusiasts), but Chinese electronics manufacture Oppo has launched a new Android phone. Not huge news, this is the companies tenth Android phone, but their first to introduce their partnership with Cyanogen Inc.
This isn’t just their first, it’s a world-wide first.
A phone manufacturer teaming up with a group of Android ROM developers. This is a huge move for the mobile industry. Custom Android development has existed since the platform was launched and it only extended an already existing underground phone modification trend that’s existed for years.
I was introduced to it back in 2008 when I tore the proprietary 3 software off my Sony Ericsson W890 in order to go for the ‘stock’ feel. Custom phone development has always been a pursuit of assumed knowledge, badly written tutorials, slapped together software and warranty-voiding threats. All this and most likely your phone will be less stable! Stability is generally the result of phone manufacturers holding their source code close to their chest, making developers essentially guess, through trial and error, how the phone works.
You also needed to be pretty brave, not fearless, but brave as there’s the ever increasing risk of ‘bricking’ your phone. I’ve never bricked a phone, not even come close. I’ve thought I’ve come close, but after figuring out the problem, nine times out of ten, it’s my stupidity, not that I was doing anything dangerous.
So rant aside, CyanogenMod has risen up out of this underground community to reach an impressive level of fame.
CyanogenMod has moved past the ‘unstable-but-feature-rich’ phase that most ROMs are stuck in. In fact, CM7 on my HTC Desire was far more stable and fast than Sense ever was. I’ve even got my dad running CyanogenMod on his tablet.
Now Oppo has formed a partnership with Cyanogen Inc. to bring the bells and whistles to their Android phone. Importantly, this means Cyanogen Inc. will have access to the right code to build the best bells and whistles.
This move gives long overdue credit to the quality, dedication and commercial viability of the Android romming community.
Check out more info here at http://cyngn.com/
