1. The two versions of Android
Android is by a long margin the most widely used smartphone OS all around the world. However Android comes in two flavours.
The first flavour is Google's Android and the second one is AOSP. All of us are familiar with Google's Android which comes pre-loaded with Google apps and services as well as Play Store and Google Play Services. Apart from China,almost all other countries use Google's version of Android. However outside of Google is another version of Android called AOSP a.k.a Android Open Source Project. This is a bare bones version of Android which is free of any influence from Google and can be utilized as well as modified by anyone to any extent for free.
2.How was Cyanogenmod formed
The AOSP version of Android is highly utilized in devices sold in China and even by Amazon. Along with that the AOSP version of Android has helped create a community of modders around it. These modders take the AOSP version of Android and add their own tweaks to it as well as additional features to make Android more functional as well as powerful. The first in this field of modding was Cyanogen. Cyanogen was started by Steve Kondik who modded Android during his free time. Later on a community of developers joined Steve Kondik in his modding efforts and Cyanogen was eventually born. For a lot of years Cyanogen acted as a hub where modders would mod the AOSP version of Android and the more enthusiatic Android users would flash the modded AOSP on their devices called CyanogenMod.
CyanogenMod was a free and good to heart organisation for a lot of years. That was until a person named Kirk Mcmaster saw the commercial potential behind CyanogenMod and met Steve Kondik to form Cyanogen Inc. Cyanogen Inc was a commercial entity whose main aim was to develop Cyanogen OS for manufacturers and take care of bug fixes and software updates. At its beginning Cyanogen Inc was more like a outsourcing company which took care of the software part for Tier 2 smartphone manufacturers. The first partnership of Cyanogen Inc was with Oppo for Oppo N1, later on Cyanogen went on to partner with One Plus and even Micromax for the One Plus One and Micromax Yu Yureka respectively. Recently it has partnered with Alcatel for Hero 2+ and even plans on partnering with Blu.
3.How does it threaten Google
Cyanogen was not always a threat for Google. In fact during its early days when Cyanogen was a non-profit entity,its developers used to modify AOSP and add features. Some of these features used to be so good that Google would include them in future releases of Android. Cyanogen became a real threat for Google with the formation of Cyanogen Inc especially when Kirt McMaster made the comment “Today, Cyanogen has some
dependence on Google. Tomorrow, it will not.” This one statement instantly makes Cyanogen a bigger rival for Google than Apple or Microsoft. Let me explain why.
4. How does Google monetize from Android
As explained above there are two versions of Android i.e AOSP and Google's Android. Google doesn't earn anything from AOSP. AOSP is free to use and modify and has negligible influence from Google. Hence Google does not earn anything from Android devices sold in China and Amazon devices which are largely based on AOSP. On the other hand Google's Android is the real cash cow for Google. For a manufacturer to install Google's version of Android on their devices they need to pay Google an upfront fee for GMS(Google Media Services) approval. Apart from this the pre-loaded Google apps help Google monetize through ads in the apps. Also a manufacturer cannot handpick Google apps,they either need to install all the Google apps or install none of them.
What Cyanogen plans on doing is promote the AOSP version of Android rather than Google's version of Android. This in turn would mean that every manufacturer who signs up with Cyanogen Inc and uses their software i.e Cyanogen OS would contribute almost no money to Google just like the Chinese vendors and Amazon.
Aren't Google services an important part of Android ?
The answer to that for the most part is yes. Many people do see the presence and integration of Google services as something that would add value to their devices. A lot of people rely daily on Google apps such as Maps,Gmail and most importantly Google Play Store. But that's not to say alternatives aren't present. A lot of Google services and apps have formidable alternatives that don't have the right amount of exposure. Cyanogen is the company that can help these alternatives come on the forefront of Android.
5. How will this work ?
Google's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. i.e they require all their apps to be pre-loaded on an Android device having GMS certification. While a lot of Google apps are helpful and widely used,an equal number of them are not as popular. These less popular Google apps can be replaced by the more popular local alternatives. Take India for example. As of now the most commonly pre-installed Google apps on the devices are
Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, Hangouts,Google+,Google Search,Google Play Music,Google Play Games,Google Play Movies,Google Maps, Google Sync, Google Docs,Google Currents, Google Calendar,Google Drive,Google Play Books,Google Chrome
Out of all the apps mentioned above,some are very rarely used in India and have viable alternatives that make a better fit than the mentioned Google App. For example very few Indians are on Google + and rather prefer Facebook. Similarly Google Play Music has very few local content available for Indians and something like Saavn or Gaana would be a better replacement. Hangouts again is very unpopular amongst Indians and Whatsapp or Hike is a much better replacement. Google Docs and Google Drive can be replaced by solutions from Microsoft. Google Chrome can be replaced by Mozilla FireFox or solutions from Opera.Google Currents,Google Play Movies,Google Play Books are hardly used by Indians and their absence or presence on a smartphone won't make much difference to the end user.
The above mentioned replacements would have negligible impact on user experience as the alternatives are better or in some cases as good as their Google counterparts.
The real problem is in finding a substitute for these 6 Google apps/services which are
1.Google Play
2.Gmail
3.Youtube
4. Google Search
5.Google Maps
6.Google Sync
Its not like a substitute cannot be found for the above mentioned 6 apps/services. Its just that the substitutes won't be as Good as their Google counterpart. I would mention a replacement for these 6 apps/services as well and also mention the drawback of installing the alternative.
1.Google Play Store can be replaced with alternative Android App Stores such as Aptoide and Yandex. These third party App Stores have greatly evolved in terms of UI and have a great collection of apps for users to search from. However these third party apps stores have very low security measures and knowingly or unknowingly malicious apps containing viruses enter these app stores and subsequently the user's devices. On the other hand Google's Play Store is much secure.
2.Gmail can be replaced by a host of third party email clients but the official Gmail app provides a lot of features and deeper integration across all other form factors which cannot be match by a third party client.
3.Finding a replacement for Youtube is almost impossible. Youtube as a service is unmatched by most of its competitors. The closest to Youtube is Dialy Motion but that's a name unheard of and does not contain as many videos as Youtube. One very slick and clever workaround to this limitation would be to create a dummy Youtube app which when opened would redirect users to Youtube's website through the phone's browser just like how apps like Flipkart and MyAirtel work. However this workaround won't be as effective as the official app for numerous reasons. Also Microsoft had adopted a similar dummy app tactic for its Windows Phone platform and traffic from that dummy app was later on blocked by Google.
4. Now the one and only replacement for Google search would be Bing. Although Bing is good enough but still its no match for Google when it comes to local Indian content such as searching a bollywood song. Replacing Google by Bing would degrade the search experience a little and also deprive the smartphone of Google's AI assistant Google Now. Users would although always have the option to manually visit Google from their browsers for their search queries in case they aren't satisfied with Bing as their default.
5.Google Maps can be replaced with Here Maps from Nokia. HERE Maps has a very big benefit over Google Maps which is that it allows users to download Maps of countries,cities, towns etc. This matters a lot in countries like India where fast data connections are patchy and expensive for the average user. However HERE maps despite its offline saving feature cannot match the detail and the length and breadth covered by Google Maps.
6.Replacement of Google Sync would be another issue. Most users save their contacts to their Google accounts along with other things such as calendar reminders and photos synced with Google Drive. In order to overcome this limitation Cyanogenmod needs to develop a mechanism by which all the data related to a person's Google account can be synced with his/her CyanogenMod account.
So the conclusion is that while there are certain Google apps that can be easily substituted,there are a few key apps substituting which can lower the quality of user experience. On the overall it is possible to create an Android device without any reliance on Google.
6.Where does Cyanogen fit in this ?
Cyanogen will act as a broker for the most part. Cyanogen will deal with several local services of a particular country and incorporate its apps within its Cyanogen OS while at the same time Cyanogen will try and strike deals with device manufacturers to load Cyanogen OS on their devices and take care of OS updates and bug fixes.
Will this work ?
The Negative -
If manufacturers decide to ship an AOSP based version of CyanogenMod two things are bound to happen. First they will lose their membership of Google's Open Handset Alliance forever which will make any future GMS approval highly difficult for the manufacturer and second Google gives manufacturers a cut from their search revenue if they don't install any competing apps on their devices. In case Manufacturers decide to go with Cyanogen's AOSP version they will inevitably install competing apps and receive no revenue cut from Google.
The Positive -
Despite all the negatives there is a slight sliver of hope that Cyanogen's model can work. The current smartphone market is highly commoditized with prices dropping at a steep rate. Most manufacturers are operating at very very thin margins and eventually a time will come when hardware margins alone would not be sustainable for a company. Most manufacturers are already working under very tight margins and need to earn money from software as well as services apart from hardware margins. This is where Cyanogen's model can shine. Cyanogen has a penchant from creating a well optimized version of Android with several great features and minimal bloat. The One Plus One smartphone has pretty standard specs. Hardware wise there was not much that differentiated the One Plus One from the rest of the market however what made it stand out was Cyanogen's software on One Plus One. Most smartphones like the One Plus One and Yureka that come pre-loaded with Cyanogen's OS have received rave reviews and other manufacturers are taking note of this. If Cyanogen is able to act as a broker and link smartphones manufacturing companies with apps/services then the end result can be disruptive.
As I said hardware manufacturers are having very thin margins. Apps and Services which compete with Google need a way to come on the forefront of Android and ready to pay for it. Cyanogen should be able to replace all the Google apps and services with third party services/apps by collecting a fee from the third party apps/services. The fee then collected can be shared amongst smartphone manufacturers and Cyanogen. This would be a win-win-win situation. The third party apps/services would get a place on the user's handsets. Manufacturers would get a fee for pre-installing third party apps/services instead of Google and this would help them subsidize their device costs and improve margins. By getting a cut from the fee Cyanogen can create a sustainable business for itself. The only loser in such an arrangement would be Google.
The above mentioned model has already been adopted on a wide scale by Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi which has seen great success and is currently amongst the top five manufacturers in the world. Xiaomi creates its own apps and sevices and partners with third party companies for its devices sold in China. The devices are sold at cheap rates and the partnerships help Xiaomi dervie extra revenue that helps them sell their products really cheap and does not give a single penny to Google. Cyanogen can help make every other manufacturer operate like Xiaomi. The only difference is that while Xiaomi does everything in house from manufacturing to partnerships to software. In case of Cyanogen manufacturing and distribution will be handled by the manufacturer. whereas partnerships and software will be handled by Cyanogen.
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