[NEWS] Samsung Mobile Buys Steve “Cyanogen†Kondik For An Undisclosed Amount

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In other acquisition news, it appears Android developer extraordinaire, Steve Kondik AKA Cyanogen, was picked up by Samsung Mobile for an undisclosed amount according the recent change in his “work†status today on Facebook. Seems Steve found himself a software engineering job for the Korean based company thanks to his exceptional work on CyanogenMod, a custom ROM supporting a broad range of devices built entirely from Android open source. CyanogenMod brings users a slightly enhanced “Google experience†to their phones, untouched by a lot of the UI fluff and changes found in many OEM devices like HTC’s Sense UI and Samsung’s TouchWiz.

Still unsure what this means for CyanogenMod (Steve assures us CM will remain a side project) or if we’re getting closers to a release of a Samsung branded “Cyanogen Phone,†seeing how Samsung recently provided the CyanogenMod team with a handful of Galaxy S II’s to tinker around with. Either way we, at Phandroid, wish Steve the best of luck in his new job venture! Thanks, for everything you’ve done and continue to do for the community!

He does make it clear that this has nothing to do with CM..

but we can expect better support for more samsung devices if the dev has access to stuff from samsung.

Source: BREAKING: Samsung Mobile Buys Steve “Cyanogen” Kondik For An Undisclosed Amount
 
SoulFire said:
he might not work on CM roms anymore as im sure hed have to sign a NDA and that means a fullstop :p

samsung previously had donated sgsII to CM team for development... If samsung's move is to shut it down then it would mean negative publicity for samsung.

However, if samsung plans to ship their phones with an OS to choose on 1st boot then that would be kind of new..!!

And as CM development is not a commercial project, rather a contribution..thus may not be affiliated by legislation.
 
Cyanogen isn't just Steve. I'm sure they'll do just fine without him although I hope Samsung doesn't interfere.
 
And in the long run, a move to block open source development or lack of custom ROM's will prove detrimental to the phone itself. Look what happened to Atrix with it's blocked bootloader, despite having a wonderful hardware it's prices fell in no time and regained only when unlocked bootloaders and custom rom's became available.
 
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