Cyanogen, the mobile software company who was trying to modify the approach of consumers towards Android, has been going through — what you can call — a mid-life crisis. The Cyanogen OS business hadn’t been doing as well as planned and the company wasn’t too sure what step should they take next. But, it seems that Cyanogen has finally figured out their righteous path for the time being.
Cyanogen has today announced that it is making some surprising changes to its top-tier management, where co-founder and CEO Kirt McMaster will takeover an “Executive Chairman” role, while Lior Tal, previously COO, will assume the CEO position. In addition, Steve Kondik, co-founder and CTO, willnow be taking on a new role as Chief Science Officer(sounds fun!).
The company has also coupled the restructuring with the announcement of it ditching its ‘full-stack’ mobile OS platform in favor of a modular approach to smartphone software customization, that’s been christened ‘Cyanogen Now’. Announcing the new modular OS program, Lior Tal, the new CEO of the company, said,
In keeping with our common mission of creating a truly open, collaborative and unrestricted Android platform, we are today announcing a new Cyanogen Modular OS program. It is designed to achieve the original objective of an open and smarter Android without the limitations of requiring the full Cyanogen OS stack and individual device bring-ups.
The Cyanogen Modular OS program enables device manufacturers to introduce intelligent, customizable Android smartphones using different parts of the Cyanogen OS via dynamic modules and MODs, with the ROM of their choice, whether stock Android or their own variant.
The company further says that the MOD program will offer the broader eco-system and developers the opportunity to tap into Cyanogen’s expanding Artificial Intelligence cloud services. Lior suggests that Android has become extremely fragmented causing serious security vulnerabilities and few or no incentives to device manufacturers to deliver software upgrades and/or security patches.
He further adds that Cyanogen’s Modular OS program will allow value, independence and intelligence to flow freely between the layers of the ecosystem. He believes that it will provide more companies and developers with the freedom to borrow from, unite and utilize our technology in new and innovative ways.
Lately, Cyanogen seems to be struggling. In July this year, the company laid off roughly 20 percent of the workforce. The lay-off allegedly lets go about 30 people out of 136 people belonging to the systems and QA teams in Palo Alto and Seattle, including smaller offices in Lisbon and India. Some customer support members were also let go in the process.
