The current friction point is loading the CM-OS onto your existing device (rooting, boot loaders, ./adb push, etc). Offering a self-service tool that does it -

The current friction point is loading the CM-OS onto your existing device (rooting, boot loaders, ./adb push, etc). Offering a self-service tool that does it - either on the phone or via USB is something many will pay $20-$50 for I would guess. Once you've got the OS on the phone, you can offer your own App Store (potentially along side the Google Play store), auto-install apps and perhaps set defaults like search engine to be google-competitors in return for revenue. They might also sell direct to OEMS, especially smaller handset OEMS, so the OEM doesn't have to worry about participating in the Android ecosystem directly.