When the Palo Alto startup Cyanogen announced that it would be shutting down its operating system services by the end of the year, the future of UK-based midrange phone company Wileyfox was in question.
Cyanogen partnered with Wileyfox and agreed to build the operating systems for the latter's line of midrange phones.
Cyanogen is known for building a modified version of Android that does not depend on Google for its services. Several phone manufacturers have been known to seek alternative operating systems aside from Android to lessen their reliance on Google. This is because the Mountain View company forces these phone manufacturers to prominently display Google products on their devices.
Cyanogen In Chaos
The announcement about the discontinuation came as a surprise for phone manufacturing companies that have come to depend on Cyanogen for the OS on their phones. This includes more famous handsets such as OnePlus One and Lenovo's ZUK Z1.
In a brief blog post, the reason provided by the company is due to its "ongoing consolidation," which is a vague statement to describe the turmoil the company has experienced in recent weeks. The Cyanogen OS will no longer be receiving security updates and nightly builds.
Cyanogen has been known to make outrageous remarks in the past. For example, its CEO Kirt McMaster once commented that his company will "take Android away from Google." Steve Kondik, founder and Chief Technology Officer, left the company last month and blamed McMaster for the massive layoffs and its impending demise.
The Next Step For Wileyfox
Wileyfox's line of phones-the Swift 2, Swift 2 Plus, Spark, Spark+, and Spark X-are all running under Cyanogen OS. With the announcement of Cyanogen, Wileyhox has decided that it will move its devices to Android Nougat.
A representative from the company had this to say to one of its customers, who posted the reply to a Reddit thread: "Our plan is to bring our entire Wileyfox portfolio onto Android N, the latest version of Google Android's OS, in a timely manner — while still continuing to protect the range with Google software security updates."
Cyanogen's announcement certainly came as a surprise for Wileyfox, as the company has just released Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus in early November, both of which are running under the Cyanogen OS. Hopefully, the company will be able to recover from this setback and will reveal its transition plans to users soon.
