Cyanogen’s CEO wants to put a ‘bullet through Google’s head’

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 24 Mar 2015

Cyanogen logo

Earlier today, Cyanogen Inc. announced that it has received an additional $80 million in its Series C funding round that it will use to acquire more talent and develop its OS.

While Cyanogen Inc. is one of the most beloved companies among the Android community, its outspoken CEO Kirt McMaster is considered a ‘douche’ by many. On previous occasion, McMaster has shown his hatred over Google’s “tyrannical” control over Android, and has mentioned that Cyanogen Inc. aims to create a Google-free version of Android.

Now, in an interview with Forbes, Kirt says that Cyanogen Inc. “is putting a bullet through Google’s head.” The company wants to leverage support of industry giants like Qualcomm, Twitter and other vendors to create an Android that is far better than Google’s current version of Android.

The company is also in talks with Blu, a smartphone vendor from Miami, to create and launch a Google-free Android device running Cyanogen OS. Blu’s CEO Samuel Ohev-Zion says in the interview that while most of the details are yet to be finalised, he hopes the handset will end up using Amazon AppStore, Opera as its stock browser, Dropbox for its cloud storage needs, Spotify for music, and Nokia Here for Maps.

“When these other apps are deeply integrated into the phone, most of the time they perform better than the Google apps”, says Blu CEO Samuel Ohev-Zion

To raise money, Cyanogen Inc. is aiming to create revenue-sharing deals with third-party apps and developers, who will get the benefit of integrating their app deep into the OS. In fact, Cyanogen is also ready to share revenue with OEMs that sell their smartphones at a very low profit margin.

What do you think about Cyanogen Inc. “putting a bullet through Google’s head?”

[Via Forbes]