Lior Tal Replaces Kirt McMaster as Cyanogen Inc. CEO
Cyanogen Inc. is undergoing a bit of reform recently. The team had laid off a large portion of its staff in late July 2016, and there were reports and refusals of Cyanogen Inc. shifting focus towards apps. Cyanogen Inc. refuted by stressing on the point that they were still an OS company, but their latest announcement mentions otherwise.
As the Cyanogen Blog notes, the changes that Cyanogen Inc. is undergoing right now is the departure of Kirt McMaster from the role of CEO of the company. Kirt, famously quoted for his desire to “put a bullet through Google’s head”, is handing over the managerial reins of the company to Lior Tal, who was appointed as the COO around the same time the layoffs came. Kirt’s current position within Cyanogen Inc. is of Executive Chairman, which as he reportedly notes, is more external-facing than internal. To add to the position shuffling, Steve Kondik is stepping down from his role of CTO and taking up the role of “Chief Science Officer”, and will be reporting to Stephen Lawler, who is currently Cyanogen Inc’s SVP of Engineering.
The other part of the changes comes with Cyanogen Inc. (and NOT CyanogenMod — sorry, but this needed to be made clear) moving out of the complete OS (full stack) business and venturing into a “modular” approach which is being called the Cyanogen Modular OS Program.
The new partnership program offers smartphone manufacturers greater freedom and opportunity to introduce intelligent, customizable Android smartphones using different parts of the Cyanogen OS via dynamic modules and MODs, with the ROM of their choice, whether stock Android or their own variant.
If we understand correctly, this is exactly what they had earlier refuted — moving from the OS business to Apps, albeit the form of it may have changed through the concept of MOD.
The announcement blog also mentions this:
At the same time, the program will offer the broader eco-system and developers the opportunity to tap into Cyanogen’s expanding Artificial Intelligence cloud services, which learn usage patterns throughout the operating system and introduce smarter and more effective ways to resolve intent and interact with smartphones in a personalized and highly contextual way.
Details on the exact workings are sparse on this topic. Rather than speculate on what it is, we hope that more information is released on Cyanogen Inc’s AI Cloud Services.
We will have to wait and watch what other developments take place with and within Cyanogen Inc., and whether their new mission is more feasible than their old one. With the reduced staff, a new CEO and a different purpose, Cyanogen Inc. certainly has another uphill battle ahead of it.
What are your thoughts on the recent changes within Cyanogen Inc.? How do you think these would affect the existing Android ecosystem? Let us know in the comments below!
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