{"id":2790,"date":"2013-09-18T16:42:29","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T21:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/?p=2790"},"modified":"2013-09-18T16:42:37","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T21:42:37","slug":"cyanogenmod-raises-money-how-will-they-make-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2013\/09\/18\/cyanogenmod-raises-money-how-will-they-make-money","title":{"rendered":"Cyanogenmod raises money – how will they make money?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OK<\/a>Cyanogen, makers of Cyanogenmod<\/a> for Android devices, just raised<\/a> $7 million from Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. The founder Steve Kondik has a really nice story: a new chapter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When you raise money, you certainly have to provide some form of “exit”. Many comments are asking how they’re going to commercialise, since they have a great commitment to opensource. Just look at their repositories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Verge thinks Cyanogenmod might be the third OS in mobile (after iOS and Android). It might even be ahead of Windows Mobile. Impressive. Just look at the opt-in installation statistics<\/a>\u00a0(~7.7 million installs).<\/p>\n

I’ve never loaded Cyanogenmod on my Android device. I’ve owned a Nexus One, HTC Desire HD (10 days?) and a Samsung Galaxy S III. Samsung is clearly not pushing out updates yet (they delay them from what I gather now that the S IV is out) so I might look into Cyanogenmod soon.<\/p>\n

I’m interested in how they’re going to monetize. Some options:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Make an easy-to-use end user installer. Charge for it.<\/li>\n
  2. Work with device manufacturers who are making cheap devices.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  3. Work with device manufacturers like HTC, who are making devices but aren’t really “successful”, and replace their UI to be more streamlined.<\/li>\n
  4. Secure messaging already exists; offer even better at a price tag?<\/li>\n
  5. Secure voice calling for a fee? The resurgence of VOIP in an easy-to-use format.<\/li>\n
  6. Offer hosted secure email, that is a gmail replacement? Nokia tried this to some extent with Ovi services. You got an Ovi account when you got a device.<\/li>\n
  7. Preload a Whatsapp-equivalent, like Samsung does (ChatON); make it available on many platforms?<\/li>\n
  8. Encrypted\/secure backup & restore. Restoring on Android loses account details for example.<\/li>\n
  9. Acquire TrueCaller<\/a> and have the services built-in. Imagine this running as a default? Imagine paying $1\/month to never have to answer spam again?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Many options exist. The firmware will be free. This is great, because older devices that manufacturers choose to neglect will just run Cyanogenmod.<\/p>\n

    The potential for developing nations is great too. The second hand market for an Android device just got a lot better. The total lifespan of a device might become tremendously longer. Interesting moves and something to watch, especially in a world where more open options are starting to come by: FirefoxOS, Ubuntu phones, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Cyanogen, makers of Cyanogenmod for Android devices, just raised $7 million from Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. The founder Steve Kondik has a really nice story: a new chapter. When you raise money, you certainly have to provide some form of “exit”. Many comments are asking how they’re going to commercialise, since they have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1204,1595,361],"class_list":["post-2790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-android","tag-cyanogenmod","tag-mobile"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4vJD-J0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}