The folks at Cyanogen Inc. have been actively trying to replace Google’s apps and services on its platform with alternatives. We’ve already seen them replace the default mail client, default calendar, and recently it was revealed that they were planning on teaming up with Microsoft to deeply integrate Cortana, ultimately replacing Google Now as the default voice assistant.
In an interview with the International Business Times, Cyanogen’s CEO Kirt McMaster revealed that their ultimate goal is to have zero dependencies on Google, and they plan on achieving that within the next 2-3 years. McMaster states, “From an evolutionary standpoint, Android is a platform that enables us to springboard into something else.”
All of this is part of the company’s plan to take Android away from Google and while it does sound like they have something against Google, they actually don’t. According to McMaster, “As much as I like to diss Google here and there, poke them in the side, our users are huge fans of Google services, and Google makes great services. So we want to continue to work with Google and have their services on our platform, but ultimately we want to give users more choice.”
As for Alphabet possibly acquiring Cyanogen, McMaster seems to be pretty open to the idea, claiming that maybe Alphabet’s CEO Larry Page might think it’s time to “disrupt Android”. What do you guys make of this?