CyanogenMod CEO McMaster said some interesting things recently.
To remove all doubts right from the get go, here’s how McMaster introduced himself: “I’m the CEO of Cyanogen. We’re attempting to take Android away from Google.” Asked to detail his vision, McMaster explained that Cyanogen wants to provide a version of Android that is open down to its core, that partners can use to build highly integrated services, in a way that is not possible right now with Google’s Android.
Well, either McMaster has no idea what he’s talking about, or he’s purposefully being disingenuous. It’s most likely the latter, since he’s got something to sell.
Of course, all the things McMaster claims his company will make possible with Android are already possible today, have been possible for years, and are actually actively being done all over the world. There are dozens of millions – possibly hundreds of millions – of users using Google-less Android all over the world; in China, Russia, the US, and beyond. Android’s openness makes it possible to replace all of Google’s applications and services with those from another company, vendor, or provider. Even you can do it! Just download Yandex.Kit, for instance.
The confusion seems to stem from people conflating Google Apps/Play Services with Android. This is an easy mistake to make for those not familiar with Android. Android itself (AOSP) is completely open source, and freely available to everyone to use as a base for a competing platform. Countless of Chinese companies, Russia’s Yandex, Nokia, Amazon, and others have attracted millions and millions of users this way.
In contrast, Google has a lot of control over Google Apps/Play Services and keeps them (mostly) proprietary. However, despite a lot of rattling of chains from Apple bloggers and Ars Technica, Google Apps and Play Services are by no means a crucial, unmissable part of Android, and they, by no means, make Android “unforkable”. In fact, if you look at the APIs currently part os Play Services, they are all strictly related to Google Services (as the name implies), and not Android itself (e.g. they don’t deal with things like hardware access).
On top of that, despite Google Apps/Play Services being proprietary, they are “freely” available; Google basically employs a gedoogbeleid concerning their availability, and allows users of custom ROMs and non-Google Android to download them. My Jolla phone, which doesn’t even run Android in the first place, has Google Apps/Play Services installed.
I am not happy with the fact that the Google Apps are proprietary, mostly because I see no need for them to be as such. Google could win a lot of goodwill by opening them up again, but Google being a company, it’s unlikely they will ever do so. Play Services are a bit of a different story; while I would certainly love for them to be open as well, I understand (though not necessarily agree) Google wants to maintain control over the access to their very servers.
The article makes another common mistake: it claims that Android manufacturers are not allowed to release Android forks. This is based on leaked 2011 licensing terms covering the Google Apps/Play Services. However, despite these leaked terms, there are several manufacturers who release Android devices both with and without Google services; Huawei and Explay are good examples of that (they both sell regular Android phones with Google services, but also devices in Russia that use Yandex.Kit). This means that either the licensing terms from 2011 are outdated, or (more likely) they are custom, and do not apply to every manufacturer. In any case, the blanket statement that all manufacturers must choose between nothing but Android with Google services, or no Android services at all is clearly not true.
In any case, I’m sure McMaster knows all this just fine – you can’t be the CEO of CyanogenMod without said understanding – which makes these comments all the more paper-thin. Then again, after the scummy way CyanogenMod treated OnePlus, I’m not exactly surprised.
The last link in the article is the same as the first one, though it should be about a different story. A mistake?
I think the comment refers to this older OSNews item in which Cyanogen chose an established Indian brand, Micromax, over OnePlus to be their partner in India.
http://www.osnews.com/comments/28101
Thanks, I fixed the link.
I don’t agree with the “Ars is trolling” part.
The trend (Google updating the open parts less frequently) is quite clear. A very recent example is Android Wear. Not only are all the programs in Android Wear itself completely closed, but so is the protocol itself.
In fact, the Wear API is right there in the list of Google Play Services API, and I’d call that a hardware API, since it’s only function is to enable communication to a Wear device.
I would hold back on this until Google has the OEMs over a barrel via Project Ara.
Then swoop in and set up shop.
This because right now installing anything but the OEM supplied, and Google approved, Android is a stinking mess.
Wouldn’t touch anything CyanogenMod with a ten foot pole.
Maybe he should first use an android device first then start talking. I like to see Goolge to open more of the android ecosystem, but Cyanogen should not be a the representative for the movemnet that is interested in it. They have no moral!!! They ruined my trust in Cyanogenmod too.
AFAICT the issue is about the app store. Smartphone customers want to be able to find and install apps, but Google are essentially mandating that for an OEM to distribute something that talks to their app store the OEM also must distribute crap that most customers don’t want (I’m looking at you, Hangouts, Google Plus, Drive, etc.)
AOSP is still a free product. An OEM could distribute an AOSP version without a store, but nobody wants that. It could try to maintain its own store, but that means customers would get a much smaller selection of apps, and it would be a nightmare for developers. So realistically, when Google says an OEM has to do something, they don’t have much choice. It’s not because AOSP isn’t free, it’s because they need Google’s app store.
The opening is for Cyanongen – or anyone else – to create a rival app store ecosystem that can be broader than any one OEM could achieve. This allows OEMs to provide customers with a smartphone experience of downloadable and purchasable apps without needing to bundle whatever Google wants or conform to whatever terms Google desires. It gives the OEM a genuine choice, and lets customers pick the apps they want on their devices.
This is not true. A lot of people want this. Hundreds of millions, as evidenced by the popularity of non-Google Android in China and even the US (Amazon).
But they don’t have much of a choice though.
I really disagree. People don’t have Google services/Play store becuase of two reasons:
1) Their country won’t allow them to have it (anything from China *) .
2) The main purpose of the device is something that does not require it (kindle fire).
So Kindle fire tablet works as its an e reader first and foremost, but a kindle fire phone does not as its a phone.
Yeah, I doubt most people buying Kindle Fires even know what Android is. Either that, or they’re trying to save a few bucks, or else they’re morons for not buying a real Android tablet.
He said in the very next next sentence…
which is exactly what many of those Asian phone makers and Amazon do… Short of preinstalling an app store they at least give the user a link to Baidu, Wandoujia, or some other “web” app store from which to get started. Regardless, there is an app store of some kind (i.e. a place to get apps) on nearly all the phones you are talking about…
So yes, in point of fact, nobody wants a phone without an app store.
Maybe they can’t, any more than Microsoft could open up Internet Explorer.
Wasn’t there some licensing reason Amazon hasn’t updated FireOS passed a certain version of Android 4.x?
The reason that Amazon has such difficulties to keep with Android upstream is old and well know, and is the same that several OEMs have: they glued too much “personalized” code on top of it, and now they must port all over in every Android release.
Pretty much like TouchWiz, HTC Sense, Motoblur or LG Optimus UI.
In Amazon’s case, this is even worse, because since it wants to provide a full alternative to Google ecosystem, it needs to clone large chunks of Google API so to keep the functionality of some applications in their own app store intact, like ones that uses location services and maps.
Edited 2015-01-26 18:44 UTC
Oh, so you mean that forking the open source project requires lots of new code (to replace closed code) to make it work? That doesn’t sound so open to me.
Any developer is free to write his application without using Google’s api. And any alternative app store is free to block applications that do use said APIs. Not using Google’s services do not make your application incompatible with a Android that have Play Services installed.
Amazon choose to replicate Google API by their own accord, so to maximize the number of applications in their own store. Apparently they feared that some popular Android applications that depended on Google code would not be ported to not use it just because FireOS.
Did he mean possibly to fill in the gaps of AOSP that Google is starting to neglect, due to Google specific versions of those apps?
I think that’s a noble mission. I also think it would be great to have a zero trust system as well. Where a user could hook up his own services ( open source) or at least choose his providers and be protected via encryption everywhere.
How does CyanogenMod even have a CEO?
Perhaps, because some people love titles ?
I have a friend that owns his 3 people small business (specialized software development). Depending to who he is talking to he presents himself as CEO or main developer (he does it for fun, at least it seems so).
They raised $7 million via venture capital, and incorporated themselves.
This doesn’t fix Android’s biggest problems:
* the permissions are too coarse and too confusing for normal humans
* nobody updates old devices, there’s no incentive to support hardware once it’s been sold
The security permissions issue is sort of a pet peeve related to my work, but the update problem is more frustrating… there are a lot of devices out there with serious security and usability issues that aren’t supported by Cyanogen or other root kits.