Cyanogen details plans for 2016: $75 devices, flagship product, CM13

The year 2015 was an eventful for the company as it announced rebranding at the beginning of the year, raised $80 million in fundinch which involved big names including Twitter, Qualcomm, Telefonica and more. The company also struck a deal with Microsoft to pre-load Microsoft apps on Cyanogen OS based smartphones.

Now, Cyanogen Co-Founder and CTO Steve Kondik, while speaking at Big Android BBQ Europe revealed the company's roadmap for the year 2016 and the plans are bigger. Cyanogen is working on developing $75 handsets in collaboration with multiple OEMs in the year 2016. The highlight of these devices would be High performance, inexpensive software and elimination of software bloat. Cyanogen is going head-to-head against Android One with plans for bloat-free, budget handsets running up-to-date software.

Cyanogen will start with CyanogenMod 13 which will be based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and the company plans to have a stable build ready before the end of this year, followed by the retail version- Cyanogen OS 13 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow in 2016. 

The OS will make use of common APIs and SDKs to tie partner apps directly meaning that the OS developer will not require to pre-load a lot of apps itself. Also Cyanogen will make sure that there are no overlap between apps so that no two apps perform the same function. For instance, Android devices often has two browser or calendar apps and so on.

Currently Cyanogen has tied up with companies like YU, ZUK, Wileyfox, BQ and in the past OnePlus. Although the focus is on low end smartphones and to push Cyanogen to as many people as possible, Steve also hinted at plans of making a flagship product, but did not reveal any specific details. "You didn't here it from me" said Kondik

Overall the year 2016 seems promising for OnePlus, as the focus shifts on competing at the low end market segment, making sure Cyanogen powered devices land in the hand of more people. 

Via