The Smartphone Wars: Samsung Busts a Move?
<p>Well, now, this is interesting.  Cyanogen hints via Twitter that we <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/cyanogen/status/136313427248431104">may get a 4.0 Cyanogen ROM in two months</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57326616-264/want-android-4.0-wait-2-months-says-cyanogen/">news coverage</a> I&#8217;ve seen so far misses what I think is the most important bit of context &#8211; that Cyanogen&#8217;s eponymous founder and lead developer got hired by Samsung a few months back.  Samsung is subsidizing this move.</p>
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<p>There are obvious reasons for Samsung to have hired Cyanogen that don&#8217;t have anything to do with this tweet&#8230;heck, if I were running an Android port team he&#8217;d certainly be at the top of <em>my</em> list.</p>
<p>But I wonder.  Is this, maybe, in part Samsung turning up the heat on its competition?  Or preparing to?</p>
<p>There&#8217;s been a lot of <a href="http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support">disgruntled talk</a> about laggy and skipped upgrades for Android phones.  Up to now I think this has mostly been a non-issue, because the app developers&#8217; API compatibility target was really 2.2 or later and upgrades since then have mattered very little in other than cosmetic ways.</p>
<p>But with 4.0 issuing this could change. So&#8230;watch Samsung&#8217;s tempo on over-the-air upgrades, and watch to see if the Cyanogen project executes on making installation of its ROM on EOLed Samsung hardware substantially easier, perhaps with some sort of look-ma-no-hands PC-based universal installer.</p>
<p>Yes, I&#8217;m just speculating.  But Cyanogen with Samsung&#8217;s backing is a different and more formidable creature than Cyanogen as some guys in garages. What, if anything, does Samsung hope to gain from that alliance?  An underexamined question; perhaps the 4.0 cycle will bring us some answers.</p>
