Oppo's CyanogenMod Phone Gets Blessed To Run Google Apps 47
sfcrazy writes "Google has blessed Oppo N1 by passing it in their compatibility test suite. What it means is that this will be the first phone outside Google's Open Hardware Alliance (OHA) to run Google services and apps legitimately. The phone will be available on December 24th."
Phew (Score:4, Interesting)
Thought it was going to get banned like Aliyun because of the stories below.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/14/3335204/google-statement-acer-smartphone-launch-aliyun-android [theverge.com]
http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-lawsuit-motorola-samsung/ [theverge.com]
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/3/ [arstechnica.com]
Anyone know if Jolla phones are banned from being made by the Android OEMs because they're using a third party jvm for compatibility?
Re: Phew (Score:5, Interesting)
Well... in the case of Cyanogenmod, it's more like, "Google kind of turns a blind eye to end users installing them, because it knows that 99.9% of the people downloading them are installing them on phones that shipped with GApps to begin with." It's kind of like how if you ask a Microsoft Licensing Specialist about using an OEM copy of Windows to install a virgin copy of the same version of Windows on a computer that shipped with a crapware-laden copy from the manufacturer, they'll tell you it's officially forbidden... but if you get your hands on an install disc somehow, call Microsoft to phone activate it, and give them the number printed on the COA on the bottom of the computer, they'll activate it anyway.
Google doesn't give a shit if someone with a Samsung phone installs GApps after reflashing it to Cyanogen. They care ENORMOUSLY if a carrier somewhere in the world sells phones from Shenzhen with unlicensed copies of GApps. As long as the barrier to doing it is high enough to require a fair amount of technical skill to install GApps on never-licensed hardware (as opposed to originally-licensed hardware that was just reflashed), they don't really care. And more importantly, they know that if they tried TOO hard to stop people with the skills to reflash from doing it, it would cost them several orders of magnitude more sales and lost goodwill, because we're the ones that two dozen people ask for advice when it's time to buy a new phone.
If you don't believe me, find a friend or family member who owned a Motorola Android phone that got its bootloader permalocked (Photon, Electrify, Atrix2, others) and ask them what they think about Motorola's current phone.... Make sure you're wearing asbestos clothing, because you'll need it...