Downsizing at Cyanogen Inc.

Steve "Cyanogen" Kondik's CyanogenMod has been one of the leading (if not the leading) Android derivatives for the past several years. Started in 2009, the effort was initially a volunteer open-source project that only produced a free, aftermarket version of Google's Android releases. In 2013, the project's leaders branched out and formed Cyanogen Inc., to develop a commercial offering as well. Recently, however, reports have circulated that the company is in financial trouble and may have laid off its operating system (OS) team to refocus its efforts on writing Android apps. Kondik, however, disputes those reports.

The original report of layoffs at Cyanogen Inc. came from the Android Police blog, which on July 22 cited "multiple sources" that the company was letting go "a significant portion of its workforce around the world". The Android Police story specifically claimed that the company was shutting down the team that worked on the open-source components of Cyanogen OS (the company's commercial OS offering) and that, moving forward, Cyanogen Inc. would shift its focus to app development.

Recode reported much the same thing, adding that the "pivot" to app development was being spearheaded by the company's new Chief Operating Officer Lior Tal. On July 25, however, Cyanogen Inc.'s CEO Kirt McMaster explicitly denied the app-pivoting rumor on Twitter, saying "we are an OS company and our mission of creating an OPEN ANDROID stands."

Finally, Kondik himself posted an update at the CyanogenMod blog on July 25. He summarized the situation as: "CyanogenMod isn’t going anywhere, nor has Cyanogen Inc. discontinued it's efforts towards the goal of bringing it to a larger audience." He went on, however, to say:

And, later:

Such wording does not refute the reports that the layoff affects primarily the OS developers, of course. All told, those layoffs appeared to account for 30 people out of a staff of 136, or around 20% of the employees.

But, even if most of those laid-off employees came from the OS division, it is difficult to imagine how Cyanogen Inc. could compete as an app vendor in the already crowded Android-app field. Volunteers in the CyanogenMod project have contributed to app development, largely to provide substitutes for the default apps that Google supplies in its own Android releases—apps that are increasingly proprietary and tied into Google's remote services.

But the distinction between CyanogenMod and Cyanogen OS has not been primarily based on app selection. The version numbers are kept in sync, reflecting the fact that the base systems are fundamentally identical. The apps that Cyanogen OS did provide on top of CyanogenMod were even released as a free download for CyanogenMod devices.

In fact, recently the main differences between the two have hinged on partnership arrangements made with other companies. For example, Cyanogen OS replaced the phone-dialer app with an alternative developed by Truecaller. The company also partnered with Microsoft to replace the Google apps found in stock Android. The replacements, of course, were proprietary apps tied to Microsoft services.

In February, Cyanogen Inc. launched an initiative—rather confusingly named "Cyanogen MOD"—that provided an alternative app store focused on system components like on-screen keyboards and dialers. It has yet to make a significant impact, and it remains possible that the layoffs and the "what doesn't work" alluded to by Kondik relate more to the MOD initiative than to CyanogenMod's open-source underpinnings.

Most directly, the layoffs likely reflect the company's trouble selling Cyanogen OS, which is still in search of a major distribution deal. That said, several smaller OEMs have shipped Cyanogen OS on devices. The OnePlus One (released in 2014) was perhaps the most high-profile device to include Cyanogen OS, but OnePlus and Cyanogen Inc. ended their partnership in mid-2015.

And, ultimately, pre-installation deals are what will make or break Cyanogen OS. Unlike CyanogenMod, the Cyanogen OS releases are not made available for download to the general public. Phones with Cyanogen OS pre-installed are also shipped without root access, although gaining root on such devices is little different from rooting other smartphones. In the end, then, a Cyanogen OS phone can always be upgraded to run CyanogenMod instead. Given that fact, convincing the user that the pre-installed version remains the better option could be a challenge.

Business Insider reports that Cyanogen Inc. has roughly three years' worth of funding available, which can be quite a long time in "software years." Until the company provides a clearer explanation of its plans, however, it is anybody's guess in what direction it can be expected to move next. At the very least, whatever the company does, CyanogenMod as an open-source project appears to be safer than Cyanogen OS, since the source code remains available and there are still community developers interested in keeping the project moving.