Cyanogen and OnePlus end their relationship, OnePlus One will continue to receive child support

By Williams Pelegrin Published April 28, 2015

oneplus 2 invites and official app go live one — Maurizio Pesce/Flickr

After a rather rocky relationship between the two companies, Cyanogen, the group behind the popular CyanogenMod, an altered version of the stock Android experience, and OnePlus have decided to part ways, reports PC World.

Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster and chief technology officer Steve Kondik confirmed the split, insinuating the two companies often butted heads due to both companies wanting to move forward with their own visions. “That’s probably the last you will see from that partnership unfortunately,” said Kondik during today’s Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing. “Two new companies are trying to do crazy stuff, a lot of people collide.”

Recommended Videos

OnePlus’ attempt to sell the OnePlus One in India last year didn’t exactly help matters, as the smartphone was temporarily banned in the country due to Cyanogen’s partnership with Micromax, one of the region’s smartphone manufacturers. The deal included a clause that forbade any other company from selling a Cyanogen-powered handset, and since the One was solely powered by CyanogenMod, that included OnePlus.

This incident appeared to cause a rift between Cyanogen and OnePlus, with McMaster not happy with the way the relationship went or ended. According to McMaster, OnePlus piggybacked on the Cyanogen brand name, and if it wasn’t for that brand recognition, OnePlus wouldn’t have sold the nearly one million One handsets it sold in 2014.

“Without Cyanogen, OnePlus would have sold like one device in international markets,” said McMaster in the interview. “Essentially they built their brand on the back of Cyanogen.”

Looking ahead

According to McMaster, Cyanogen already has other partners that can ship at larger scales lined up. “OnePlus shipped reasonable volume, but nothing compared to what some of these other partners can ship,” said McMaster. “So we are working with partners that can scale much quicker.”

In an email sent to PC World, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei described the relationship between Cyanogen and OnePlus as “mutually beneficial.” Pei added that OnePlus “wouldn’t be where [it is] today without this joint effort.”

OnePlus already released its OxygenOS Android ROM, a slightly altered version of stock Android 5.0 Lollipop. For those that want to stick with CyanogenMod on the OnePlus One, there is good news on that front: Cyanogen promised to continue supporting OnePlus handsets running CyanogenMod.

Topics

Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

Mobile

Here are some of the specs for the OnePlus Open 2

OnePlus Open in Emerald Dusk open halfway showing home screen.

The OnePlus Open was a heck of a foldable phone that scored a four out of five in our review, and now we have exciting news about its successor. The OnePlus Open 2 is scheduled to launch sometime in 2025 and promises to bring serious upgrades with it, including an even slimmer design. That's saying something, especially since the original OnePlus Open is already incredibly thin (just 5.8mm) when unfolded.

The news comes courtesy of tipster Digital Chat Station on Weibo and through GSMArena's translation. A previous rumor stated that the OnePlus Open 2 might be less than 10mm when folded, lending credence to the idea of an ultrathin phone.

Mobile

The OnePlus 13 will beat most other smartphones in one surprising way

OnePlus 12 Glacial White cameras.

With the Chinese launch of the OnePlus 13 just days away, more and more details keep making their way to our feeds. This morning, three key specs on the OnePlus 13 appeared on Weibo (the Chinese social media outlet) and were posted by OnePlus itself. Two of them are exciting, while the other is downright surprising.

The first detail is that it will use an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor with a "super intuitive" position. In practice, this means the fingerprint sensor will be able to pick up details more accurately and will work even if your finger is wet. It also works in low light and should be significantly faster than an optical sensor.

Mobile

OnePlus 13 confirmed to get a mixed bag of camera upgrades

Leaked image of OnePlus 13.

OnePlus has been steadily dropping bits of information as it gears up for the launch of its next flagship phone later this month. The latest tease sheds some light on the OnePlus 13’s camera hardware, which seems like a mix of small upgrades and a minor drop.

The primary camera will adopt Sony’s LYT-808 sensor, which is the same 50MP 1/1.4-inch format kit that we also saw on the OnePlus 12. This time around, OnePlus is extending 4K Dolby Vision capture support across all cameras instead of keeping it limited to the main snapper.