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I find it somewhat disingenuous when the CEO of Cyanogen makes claims about people wanting use CyanogenMod without the Google Apps. Look at any custom-built Cya

by FreakyT 12y ago

I find it somewhat disingenuous when the CEO of Cyanogen makes claims about people wanting use CyanogenMod without the Google Apps. Look at any custom-built CyanogenMod roms out there -- every one of them includes instructions on flashing the Google apps. The only company that has had any success with a forked Android is Amazon, and I suspect that's less about writing replacement apps (as I guess Cyanogen plans to do) and more about Amazon's existing massive market power.

Zigurd 12y ago
Office for Android doesn't suck. That was a big missing piece.
- serve_yay 12y ago
  But why is MS any better or different than Google?
  - smacktoward 12y ago
    If you've already bought into Office on the desktop, it's appealing to be able to have first-party support for it on mobile too, rather than have to deal with converting back and forth with Google Docs or some other non-MS office application.
  - Zigurd 12y ago
    For one thing, Google isn't fully back in China. They are putting together an ecosystem together with local partners, but Microsoft never left China. That's a big enough market to justify OEMs using Office on Android.
seanmcdirmid 12y ago
> CEO of Cyanogen makes claims about people wanting use CyanogenMod without the Google Apps. You know, China exists; Google apps are blocked in an entire country that just happens to be the largest single country market for mobile. > The only company that has had any success with a forked Android is Amazon That is definitely not true. Xiaomi? Anyone selling Android in China (which excludes Amazon)?
- fpgeek 12y ago
  As you note, inside China is an important special case, but outside China, Xiaomi includes Google apps. For that matter, even plenty of people in China want Google. There's a practically a cottage industry of hacks to get the Play Store on Chinese devices (including a shady app in the Mi Market, I believe).
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    The situation is totally artificial: most Chinese would love to have Google on their phone if the gov would allow it. But given the situation, it should be no surprise that some of the biggest consumers of Cyanogen are OEMs making phones for use in the PRC market.
    - fpgeek 12y ago
      Exactly. That demonstrates the fundamentally unstable foundation of Chinese non-Google Android. China might decide to interfere with the non-Google services being used (I suspect that's more if they come from a foreign company like Microsoft), Google might negotiate a new agreement or something else might scramble the playing field (China taking a hard line on device encryption?).
liotier 12y ago
> Look at any custom-built CyanogenMod roms out there > every one of them includes instructions on flashing > the Google apps. Doesn't mean that everyone installs them - my Cyanogenmod is always 100% Google-free. That said, Microsoft has long been banned from my systems and Google more recently - so when compulsory Microsoft binaries start to appear in Cyanogenmod, it will be time for me to part ways.
msh 12y ago
but I think its going to be easier (easier, not easy) and cheaper to do a android fork and provide dropping replacements for all google api's than developing windows phone. Its not easy or cheap to fork android, but I think microsoft is one of the few companies with the resources to do it.

by FreakyT 12y ago

Zigurd 12y ago

Office for Android doesn't suck. That was a big missing piece.

serve_yay 12y ago
But why is MS any better or different than Google?
- smacktoward 12y ago
  If you've already bought into Office on the desktop, it's appealing to be able to have first-party support for it on mobile too, rather than have to deal with converting back and forth with Google Docs or some other non-MS office application.
- Zigurd 12y ago
  For one thing, Google isn't fully back in China. They are putting together an ecosystem together with local partners, but Microsoft never left China. That's a big enough market to justify OEMs using Office on Android.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago

> CEO of Cyanogen makes claims about people wanting use CyanogenMod without the Google Apps. You know, China exists; Google apps are blocked in an entire country that just happens to be the largest single country market for mobile. > The only company that has had any success with a forked Android is Amazon That is definitely not true. Xiaomi? Anyone selling Android in China (which excludes Amazon)?

fpgeek 12y ago
As you note, inside China is an important special case, but outside China, Xiaomi includes Google apps. For that matter, even plenty of people in China want Google. There's a practically a cottage industry of hacks to get the Play Store on Chinese devices (including a shady app in the Mi Market, I believe).
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  The situation is totally artificial: most Chinese would love to have Google on their phone if the gov would allow it. But given the situation, it should be no surprise that some of the biggest consumers of Cyanogen are OEMs making phones for use in the PRC market.
  - fpgeek 12y ago
    Exactly. That demonstrates the fundamentally unstable foundation of Chinese non-Google Android. China might decide to interfere with the non-Google services being used (I suspect that's more if they come from a foreign company like Microsoft), Google might negotiate a new agreement or something else might scramble the playing field (China taking a hard line on device encryption?).

liotier 12y ago

> Look at any custom-built CyanogenMod roms out there > every one of them includes instructions on flashing > the Google apps. Doesn't mean that everyone installs them - my Cyanogenmod is always 100% Google-free. That said, Microsoft has long been banned from my systems and Google more recently - so when compulsory Microsoft binaries start to appear in Cyanogenmod, it will be time for me to part ways.

msh 12y ago

but I think its going to be easier (easier, not easy) and cheaper to do a android fork and provide dropping replacements for all google api's than developing windows phone. Its not easy or cheap to fork android, but I think microsoft is one of the few companies with the resources to do it.