Cyanogen Inc. blew up its partnership with OnePlus last year in order to pursue an exclusive partnership with Micromax under its YU brand in India. YU has released a few devices running Cyanogen OS since then, but the internet had a touch of schadenfreude a few days ago when YU dropped Cyanogen from its Yuphoria phone. However, Cyanogen says everything is still cool.
The phone at issue here (the Yuphoria) was released earlier this year with Cyanogen OS. It’s a mid-range device that sold for the equivalent of about $100. By all accounts it was a fine device, but the Cyanogen model (YU5010) is no longer available. The device listed on Amazon India is the YU5010A, running stock Android 5.1.1 for a few bucks less. So, is this the beginning of the end for Cyanogen-YU?
Here’s the statement we got from Cyanogen Inc regarding the situation with YU.
So, apparently the two companies are still collaborating. This isn’t a OnePlus-style breakup. The Snapdragon 810-powered Yutopia will still be running Cyanogen OS, and this is going to be YU’s first flagship-level phone. Still, to have a phone that was running Cyanogen suddenly switch to stock Android is weird. This might be a test run for YU—a way to see if it still sells phones without Cyanogen OS. Whatever the reason, no one is getting dumped right now.