Poll: Which Chinese phone maker do you want to see team up with Cyanogenmod?

AndiSeptember 19, 2013

Cyanogenmod is now a company! The team have funding and they will be working with a hardware maker which will run their excellent ROM! So if you had a choice of Chinesephone maker who would you like to see work with them?

Cyanogenmod have raised $7 million in funding, are rumoured to be working with a hardware maker (possibly Oppo) and are planning to launch a simple installer app which will allow anyone to install the latest CM ROM with one simple click.

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We and others are pretty sure Oppo are already on board with the team, but Cyanogenmod are going to want more partners, so which Chinesephone companies would you like to see open up to developers?

Obviously there are some companies who aren’t going to be interested in the idea. Xiaomi and Meizu spring to mind, but other Chinesephone makers might be swayed to embrace the idea! Please vote and feel free to choose more than one choice!

[poll id=”4″]

We’ll keep the poll open for a week. Also, if there are any other 3rd party ROMs you would like to see receive manufacturer support let us know in the comments section.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Andi

- They should work with Mediatek, not phonemakers…
  And we all would have the pros of that partnership.
  Until then, The F word to Mediatek for not releasing the code necesary to build up a ROM for the MTK6589 chip.
iNEW
September 19, 2013
- Paulius
  September 19, 2013
HUAWEI 4 sure

Chrispynutt
September 19, 2013
In particular I think Jiayu, FAEA and Neo are in weird space between no-name makes and the top tier Oppo, Lenovo and Miezu.
Jiayu’s design especially seem a little me too, FAEA and Neo seem to know what they have in mind.
Jiayu seem to work hard on their build and roms these days. I’d like a two way communication between them and CM to build something as refined externally as they have in CM software.
Moon on a stick time.
CM + Jiayu with phones on a par visually with say the Zune HD and Lenevo K900. Maybe a two size range with a one handed use 4.2″ 720P and 5″+ 1080P two handed phone. Good sized battery, removable and SD card slot. Maybe a lightweight LCD or ePaper watch for updates.

Spyros
September 19, 2013
Knowing how porting works, they probably need to build rom for mediatekek xxx and then all the phones with the same cpu will be able to boot it and with a little push from community to get everything working. right now they haven’t made any rom for any mediatek cpu..
- September 19, 2013
  yes, agreed. But this is a Mediatek policy decision. They are holding the kernel code necessary for an AOSP project and refuse to release it in to open source.
  - fan
    September 19, 2013
    And why the hell not? Is Google bribing or coercing mediatek to hinder the non-google android community? Or is MTK too space age?
  - September 19, 2013
    Yap. Mediatek suck big time. Whats so special about their code?? That why all MTK6577 phones are stuck on 4.1 and all of us who bought phones with MTK6589 are now held at ransom waiting to see if we will get KitKat as its all upto Mediatek not the manufacturers. Why dont they just release the code and let the community do the rest? I wish someone could start an online petition.
  - Marius
    September 19, 2013
    Not really true. Mediatek are not withholding the source code. Sony, TCL ( Alcatel ), Samsung and probably others release the Mediatek source code so it’s out there in case anyone wants it.
    Specific Chinese manufacturers won’t release the kernel source code with their ( probably slight ) adaptations for their specific HW.
    - September 20, 2013
      actually as a developer, we have the sources for mtk6589 the only thing missing even from the Sony Xperia C sources, which i the most complete to date..is the MediaTek framework which we believe MediaTek is holding..without those, we cant do almost everything involved with custom roms, kernels, porting…
      - Marius
        September 20, 2013
        Could you be more specific as to what you mean by Mediatek Framework, I’m really curious because I’ve been thinking about working on custom firmwares for Mediatek phones too.
        Do you mean the Android layer above the kernel ?
        September 21, 2013
        the issue was well discussed here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2274332 (cant find exact page) have a look to grasp a better understanding of framework among other things…
- September 19, 2013
  It’s all upto Mediatek not the manufaturers unfortunately, with their silly hold up of kernel code. No code means no offcial custom ROMs for any mediatek phone.
  - Marius
    September 19, 2013
    Plenty of Mediatek source code out there from Sony, TCL and probably others.
    Manufacturers in China aren’t releasing the source code.
- yash3339
  September 21, 2013
  I really think we haven’t been able to understand the working much. I really don’t think companies like Jiayu are benefitted from holding back the source code; I think there’s much more to the market than we make of it. Mediatek provides chipsets to relatively small time manufacturers like UMi and JiaYu to international manufacturers like Sony. I think there’s pressure from Mediatek to not release the source code; which in turn comes from companies like Sony.
  Just a theory I would like to believe in. Makes sense?
Airyl
September 19, 2013
I’ll go THL. Simply because I love the THL W11.

Rich
September 19, 2013
Those saying JiaYu obviously aren’t in a rush to get a CyanogenMod phone then! lol 2015 release maybe? 😉
September 19, 2013
Maximum number of choices allowed: 1
Either remove that limit or don’t say in the article that we can choose more than 1.

September 19, 2013
Hmmm…
To be practical, it’s not going to happen for any of the Mediatek based companies until Mediatek releases their code into opensource.
And while that rules out Zopo, THL, JiaYu, iOcean, UMI, and many others, it does leave Oppo, Viva, ZTE, Huawei, and Lenovo, that use Qualcomm Snapdragons, or their own ARM chips.
Of the Qualcomm based batch, Oppo seems to be the best positioned to become a CM partner.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’d LOVE to see Mediatek based devices running AOSP based software builds. And I REALLY hope that Mediatek will change there ways about their software policies soon. Of the Mediatek based group, Zopo and UMI are the companies that be the best “partners” for CM, they have the right attitude and temperament to support the software, and won’t insist on ruining it with custom modifications or by yanking out services that aren’t popular with the Chinese government.
Summary: Oppo (best choice)
Longshots: Zopo and UMI.
- Amit
  September 20, 2013
SBS
September 19, 2013

sere83
September 19, 2013
None of the Above and obviously Oppo is the one and in fact is the most likely given the support they have shown cyanogen already.
Oppo is in a completely different league to almost all Chinese and in fact a number of the big brands when it comes to build quality, The smaller manufacturers using only mediatek chipsets are way behind. With cyanogen on board Oppo along with xiaomi will pose a very serious threat to the mainstream players, I would love to see it.
- Simon
  September 20, 2013

Meizufan
September 19, 2013
Meizu. Will be their chance to grow and introduce much more in international market . But maybe they would need to create their own processor cause maybe Exynos processor may limit share open source code.
CL
September 19, 2013
I like Jiayu I have 2 phones my friends has Jiayu …
Albert
September 20, 2013
TCL !
Volcacius
September 20, 2013
Mediatek business strategy is pretty simple; they don’t release source code for their platforms so that at every major software update the user is forced to get a new phone. This way they can afford to stay cheap while maintaining a costant profit over the new android versions. If things didn’t went this way, their phones wouldn’t be so cheap. I don’t understand how people can realistically expect more, they are a company, not a no profit group.
- September 20, 2013
  Fingers crossed that a) either they change that policy or b) Chinese phone makers up their game and start offering Qualcomm devices. Oppo have shown the rest of the Chinese phone makers the way forward, smaller companies just need to do what they can to offer something similar.

Speedy
September 20, 2013
Hey Andi
Could ya tell me if voto x2 and umi x2 are same?
Can i use umi x2 roms in voto ?
umi India is delivering voto x2 rather than umi x2 :/ just got mine
- September 20, 2013
  They are from the same factory, but I believe the Voto branded phones are stock UMi refused to accept due to quality problems
  - Speedy
    September 21, 2013
    Thankyou for info, Can i use umi x 2 roms posted on the bbs.umi forum?
    or ill just have to go to Umi India to get em switched with the “UMI X2”?

wai7758
September 20, 2013
huawei……………….
jasneskis
September 21, 2013
I voted Zeppo because they make a big phone, Jiayu does not. I am beginning to lean towards big phones and eliminate carrying a tablet. I have a Jiayu which I like, but I want a bigger screen.
ZHI
September 22, 2013
I think you should join lenovo
Loft
September 22, 2013
ZTE U956. Thinks.
Jim
September 23, 2013
ZTE u795 nothing is more cost-effective than this! Since the choice of the MTK, it and ordinary mobile phone like!

ZTE Grand Era U985 thankyou
September 23, 2013
ZTE-V889M谢谢了。
why not lenovo?
ZZX_2S
September 25, 2013
ZTE U985 Thanks. （ZTE中兴 Grand Era U985） is a TD-scdma phone. TD is a 3G in china.
Klutz
September 29, 2013