Cyanogen Begins Expansion, Hires Qualcomm and Amazon Top Engineers

[DroidModderX]

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It looks like Cyanogen is one step closer to "putting a bullet in Google's head" with a few new key hires of Top Amazon and Qualcomm engineers. Former Amazon engineering leader Stephen Lawler will be the new Vice President of Engineering for Cyanogen while Qualcomm's former leading engineer Karthick Lyer will be the new Vice President of Global Systems. Cyanogen is obviously looking to expand their product and platform.

Our focus continues to be evolving the Android platform and driving innovation in mobile computing. Signals, services and systems are at the heart of building an evolved computing platform. Both Lawler and Iyer respectively are world class leaders in these areas, each having scaled some of the most successful computing and services platforms. Lawler brings a wealth of technical leadership in mobile, mapping, location, search, and cloud services. Iyer has deep expertise in end-to-end Android development. Both understand how to optimally scale engineering organizations.” -Kirt McMaster, Co-founder and CEO of Cyanogen Inc.

This move signals some pretty ambitious things to come for the company. Do you think this is the first step for Cyanogen's Google takedown?

via AndroidAuthority

 

[mountainbikermark]

Google takedown? No
Google competitor? Time will tell
If the Amazon one had anything to do with their ui well.... If the Qualcomm engineer was involved with the chip that turns out does overheat, he was suddenly expendable too.
Top doesn't always mean best.

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[RyanPm40]

Not sure how Cyanogen would take down Google if they're reliant on their OS?

 

[DroidModderX]

Google takedown? No
Google competitor? Time will tell
If the Amazon one had anything to do with their ui well.... If the Qualcomm engineer was involved with the chip that turns out does overheat, he was suddenly expendable too.
Top doesn't always mean best.

Support Our Troops !!!
<><
Beast Mode 4

These are all very excellent points!

 

[kodiak799]

Not sure how Cyanogen would take down Google if they're reliant on their OS?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but the major OEM's - if they want to "de-leverage" their reliance on Google, prefer to go their own route (most notably Samsung and Tizen, but several have gone proprietary on smartwatches, as well). So I just don't see major OEM's remotely interested in Cyanogen, which means Cyanogen is trying to get a foothold in a very small market. Cyanogen just really doesn't enable an OEM to diversify away from Google.

Their strategy appears - and it makes sense - to try to align with budget manufacturers and establish a mass market base in developing markets. Even Microsoft, which is the only major player you could possibly see an alliance with, will push WinMo until it's dead.

Where Cyanogen could hit it out of the park is to convince OEM's to unlock phones and at least let Cyanogen take over end-of-life support after 18 months or so. Problem is the carriers certainly don't want that, and the OEM's would much rather sell you a new phone.

 

[Jeffrey]

Their strategy appears - and it makes sense - to try to align with budget manufacturers and establish a mass market base in developing markets. Even Microsoft, which is the only major player you could possibly see an alliance with, will push WinMo until it's dead.

Right on the money @kodiak799 CM has partnered with some of the Chinese OEM's and have CM 12.1 as an alternative to the stock Android OS.