The first things that comes to mind when you OnePlus is OxygenOS. Every single OnePlus owner got the phone because of OxygenOS. They did not get the phone for camera, not for display, not for process. They buy it for that butter smooth, super fast OxygenOS. Micromax made Oneplus what it is today, by pushing OnePlus away from CyanogenOS.
When OnePlus first designed the legendary OnePlus One, they went with CyanogenOS, which is nothing but CyanogenMod with software support and official updates. Back in 2014, CyanogenMod used to be very very popular 3rd party ROM. Those who wanted to get rid of slow and clutter filled OS that came with their phone would root their phone and install 3rd party ROM like CyanogenOS. The reason why OnePlus sold truckload of OnePlus One devices was the price and the feature set that a $299 phone offered. It had specs that put top end phones to shame.
Micromax/Cyanogen vs OnePlus
27th November, 2014 : Cyanogen announced in their blog that they have entered into exclusive partnership with Micromax to load CyanogenOS for Yu branded smartphones in India.
This was a massive shock to OnePlus as they were going to launch the OnePlus One in India on 2nd of December. Just days before the launch, they are told not to sell Cyanogen branded phones in India.
OxygenOS is born
OxygenOS was the direct result of Cyanogen’s backstabbing, which was mainly because of Micromax going for that exclusivity deal in India, just days before OnePlus One came to India. The moment OnePlus got to know about this Cyanogen+Micromax partnership, they decided to build a new OS from scratch and get rid of CyanogenOS.
17th December, 2014 : OnePlus announced “OnePlus ROM: You Name It” contest.
30 January, 2015 : OnePlus announces OxygenOS and HydrogenOS, announces @Midfire from Belgium as winner of naming contest.
April, 2015 : OxygenOS 1.0 was released for OnePlus One device but you owners had to download the entire OS as zip and flash it as it cannot be installed as an update.
The initial versions of OxygenOS were full of bugs and causes lot of app crashes. This was expected as they had to design a full fledged OS in matter of months. But then, from OxygenOS 4.0, the OS became better and better and better, smoother and smoother.
The rest, well, is history.
What happened to Cyanogen?
Less than 2 years after this happened, Kirt McMaster, whose greediness caused OnePlus to part from Cyanogen, stepped down as CEO of CyanogenInc and exactly two years after that backstabbing, Cyanogen announced that they are shutting down.
“Without Cyanogen, OnePlus would have sold like one device in international markets,” … “Essentially they built their brand on the back of Cyanogen.” – Kirt McMaster
The worst part was when Kirt day dreamed that he is meant for bigger brands and that he does not want to work with smaller brands like OnePlus.
“OnePlus shipped reasonable volume, but nothing compared to what some of these other partners can ship,” … “we are working with partners that can scale much quicker.”
Whatever was left was forked into LineageOS and the community went back to building custom ROMs for free.
What happened to Micromax?
OnePlus One was absolute peach of a product, designed by visionaries who knew what they were doing. Yu Yureka was a rebranded Coolpad F2 and though the OS was good, it has lot of hardware issues. The subsequent Yu phones flopped in the market due to software and hardware bugs. At the same time, Chinese brands started entering India. Lack of proper devices and lack of in-house designs led to Micromax’s fall and they were wiped out of the market by end of 2017. They had nearly 25% marketshare in Indian mobile phone industry and by end of 2017Q4, they had single digit market share.
Thank you Micromax and Cyanogen for bringing us OxygenOS
I do not think OnePlus would’ve come this far if it was CyanogenOS. Many other brands would’ve gone with CyanogenOS and provided similar experience. Micromax took exclusivity for CyanogenOS in India and this made OnePlus to create OxygenOS, the biggest selling point of OnePlus devices. Given that OxygenOS is made in-house, OnePlus has 100% rights to develop and they never would be in that situation again. What do you think? Did Micromax kill a golden goose by making that deal and was it Kirk
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