Indian OnePlus One to Ship Without Cyanogen OS After All

A little under two weeks ago, we first talked about an unfortunate situation whereby upcoming OnePlus One devices sold in India were rumored to ship without “Cyanogen OS” due to Cyanogen Inc. granting exclusive rights to their proprietary firmware in India to Micromax. Needless to say, this situation is less than ideal both for the Oppo offshoot as well as potential Indian buyers, as one of the main appeals of the OPO is undoubtedly its bloat-free CM11s install.

After the inevitable bad publicity, the Cyanogen Blog posted an official statement with the somewhat facetious title Cyanogen’s Commitment to our Users a little under a week ago stating, “OnePlus One will get OTA firmware updates for all global devices, including global devices for our users in India.” All gravy, right? After all, they immediately followed up the statement with a reassuring, “Rather than have misinformation continue to circulate out there, we felt it important to bring this matter to rest.”

Although the statement is factually accurate, it has the potential of being more than a little misleading to potential consumers of the device. This is because the word “Global” here doesn’t refer to devices sold globally, but rather a specific variant of the OnePlus One sold in all regions except for currently available Chinese devices and the upcoming Indian devices. In these regions, devices will (continue to) be sold without CM11s, and instead feature an alternative firmware.

Taken from the official Cyanogen Blog:

As we had pledged to our users, OnePlus One global devices will receive our OTA firmware updates. If a user in India purchased a OnePlus One global device in channels outside of India, they will receive our OTA firmware updates. However, this excludes OnePlus One regional devices sold directly in India. We are committed to our exclusive partnership in India with Micromax, which will be launching its first Cyanogen OS device under their new YU brand.

This is a rather unfortunate situation for potential buyers not only because the upcoming device won’t feature CM11s, but also because their original “clarification” served to complicate matters further. Not only did the official statement introduce confusion among media outlets such as ours, but it inevitably caused a stir among potential buyers who may or may not be fluent with the subtleties of the English language and the distinction between the “global” device and devices shipping globally.

Luckily, there is one saving grace here, and that is that these devices ship unlocked, and one can only assume that the forthcoming Indian OnePlus One will feature identical (or nearly identical) hardware to the global variant. If that is the case, it is highly likely that users will be able to simply flash over the firmware from the global device onto Indian devices, but there are no assurances as to whether or not this will work forever, if it works at all.

We’ve reprinted and linked to the official statements issued by the official Cyanogen Blog below. What are your thoughts on the lack of Cyanogen OS on the upcoming Indian OnePlus One? Let us know your thoughts about the situation and the overall appeal of the device in the comments section below.

December 7 – OnePlus One Global Device Update

Since we clarified our support for OTA firmware updates for OnePlus One global devices, we’ve received a number of inquiries regarding OnePlus One devices sold in India.

As we had pledged to our users, OnePlus One global devices will receive our OTA firmware updates. If a user in India purchased a OnePlus One global device in channels outside of India, they will receive our OTA firmware updates. However, this excludes OnePlus One regional devices sold directly in India. We are committed to our exclusive partnership in India with Micromax, which will be launching its first Cyanogen OS device under their new YU brand.

December 4 – Cyanogen’s Commitment to our Users:

Over a year and a half ago, we founded Cyanogen Inc. with an unfailing commitment to build a mobile OS by the users, for users. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time and are continually amazed by the innovation fostered by our engineering and product teams and the exceptional contributions by the CM community. We couldn’t have accomplished so much in a short period of time if it were not for the commitment and vision we collectively share to redefine mobile computing. With that said, we wanted to address a couple points of inaccurate information that have come out over the past week. We had not commented earlier as we believe in treating our partners and users with the utmost respect.

We are proud of the work we did on the OnePlus One. Through our collaboration with OnePlus, we demonstrated the power of strong hardware and software tuned for exceptional performance. To clarify misinformation out there, the OnePlus One will get OTA firmware updates for all global devices, including global devices for our users in India. Rather than have misinformation continue to circulate out there, we felt it important to bring this matter to rest.

As we look to the future, we want to continue to push the envelope and take the Cyanogen OS to new heights. Our strategic partnership with Micromax and the new YU brand of devices will enable us to bring high quality, amazing experiences to our users in India. Our commitment is and always remains to be a user-centric company, and we will support our users wherever our OS is distributed.

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source: xdadevelopers