In a two sentence statement Cyanogen announced the end.
Starting December 31st, the company would no longer be providing service to Android phones. In addition, Cyanogen explained that the company will be consolidating their services. However, the source could will remain available to anyone who is interested in building upon the CyanogenMod operating system.
What is Cyanogen?
Cyanogen, also known as CyanogenMod, is an operating system designed for Android tablets and smartphones. The application was first released as a free program, which gave Android users access to other third-party applications not available on the traditional Android operating systems.
The news to shut down their operating system comes only two months after the release of a new OS. The new OS included an artificial intelligence cloud service that helped developers utilize the operating system by introducing “smarter and more effective ways to resolve intent and interact with smartphones in a personalized and highly contextual way.”
In a 2015 Forbes report, Cyanogen had a mission to overtake Google’s Android operating system. At the time, Cyanogen CEO said “Google is the common enemy.”
What about Google’s Android?
Cyanogen is cleaning up shop leaving the future of the operating system in the hands of a group of community developers. Meanwhile, Google’s Android application and newly released mobile phone is doing well in the tech industry. Prior to Christmas, Google’s Pixel phone had a growing share in the mobile phone industry. In fact, Pixel accounted for 0.5% of phone sales prior to November. In addition, earlier this month Google announced the release of Android Things – the ability to use the Android OS to create connected devices. The company explained on their website that, “if you can build an app, you can build a device,” using their Android Things programming.