Microsoft was itching to do it. And now it has got a partner in crime in the form of Cyanogen.
For most of us,the news may have sounded a little crazy. How could a minion like Cyanogen that relies on Android and Google, could go against Google. But then the news of Microsoft being a minority investor in a roughly $70 million round of equity financing, managed to put things in a clearer perspective.
Android was supposed to be an ‘open source operating system that hardware makers could use in their devices. But Google irked manufacturers by requiring them to set Google searches as the default browser in exchange of access to their search engine, YouTube and millions of apps in its Play Store.
Such mandates make it really hard for Google competitors to win distribution for its Android devices. For instance, Microsoft won’t be able to attract the desired audience for its search engine ‘Bing’and it also curtails the growth of other Microsoft software products.
According to media sources, several strategic investors have expressed interest in investing in Cyanogen so as to do away with Google’s control over the Android.
Cyanogen will be offering an alternate version of the Android operating system that would be free of such restrictions. The 80-person company is backed by a voluntary fleet of 9,000 software developers working on its own version of Android.
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