Now, Blu joins in on the Cyanogen OS party with its own CM phone (minus GApps)

Yash GargMarch 23, 2015

OPPO, OnePlus, Yu… what’s common between the three companies? Yeah, you guessed right; all of the three makers have/had offered phones powered by a CyanogenMod/Cyanogen OS variant.

What’s interesting is that no Western phone maker has done so yet, despite pretty much all of them (barring Yu) targeting the Western market. This might all change very soon, for US-based Blu is all set to roll out a Cyanogen OS powered phone.

However, there’s something that’s going to be different this time. The company will NOT offer Google Play services (including all related Google apps) out of the box with the new smartphone… which is a part of Cyanogen Inc.’s bigger picture to make Cyanogen OS and Google’s Android mutually exclusive.

First step to that will be Cyanogen’s own app store. Cyanogen Inc. has been working on branding quite a bit, as you might have also noticed. As for the Cyanogen OS phone is concerned, it appears as though it’ll come with Amazon equivalent of Google Play, i.e., the Amazon Appstore. Other apps the phone will include, according to Liliputing, will be Nokia Here, Opera, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.

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READ: Yu Yureka Review – $150 Cyanogen OS Phone!

It’ll be interesting to see how the market reacts to a phone like the one you’re picturing in your minds right now. OnePlus and Yu certainly priced their respective Cyanogen OS offerings very well, and I certainly expect Blu to continue with the trend… but how well they manage to do it is what remains to be seen.

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About the author
Yash Garg
Yash is a blogger by profession, builder of things by passion and foodie by birth. You'll usually find him talking about technology, music, travel and the game of cricket on the streets of Pune when not busy writing or speeding his way through the country! Read more on retro handheld gaming on RETRO91

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Market will react with installing minimal gaps & then playing around with CM app store. 🙂
Lazar Prodanovic
March 24, 2015
Give me the real android experience (with G apps). Google Android all the way.
+1876™ plus1876.net
March 24, 2015
Give me the real android experience (with G apps). Google Android all the way.

jimberkas
March 24, 2015
nobody want cyanogen app store. but i am interested in a BLU phone running CM with G apps. I’ll see how this plays out
- Dan Sims
  July 24, 2015
  If CM is anything like Android you can just enable developer mode>check allow unknown sources+USB debugging>go to internet then Bing Playstore and just download the Playstore. I plan on installing Mobogenie app store myself then installing Opera mini browser for internet.
balcobomber25
March 24, 2015
I would prefer Blu come out with a phone that natively runs MIUI or Flyme.

Guest
March 25, 2015
nobody want cyanogen app store. but i am interested in a BLU phone running CM with G apps. I’ll see how this plays out
- Dan Sims
  July 24, 2015
  If CM is anything like Android you can just enable developer mode>check allow unknown sources+USB debugging>go to internet then Bing Playstore and just download the Playstore. I plan on installing Mobogenie app store myself then installing Opera mini browser for internet.
balcobomber25
March 25, 2015
- Marco Lancaster
  March 25, 2015
  Is Flyme really good? I’ve tried MIUI and appreciated it, but I’m curious to see Flyme. Maybe when I got my Jiayu S3 flash Flyme on it.

Marco Lancaster
March 25, 2015
Is Flyme really good? I’ve tried MIUI and appreciated it, but I’m curious to see Flyme. Maybe when I got my Jiayu S3 flash Flyme on it.
ocdhd
August 21, 2015
What Google needs is a swift kick in the rear by something a fraction of its size and Lean. People have had enough with Google’s 200MB Gapps Bloating up their phones, constant wakelocks, battery drains, inefficient security model. Rather than taking Control of security updates such as the recent Stagefright fiasco, Google has managed to take features away from the user in the name of security. In other words, protecting users from themselves, and from other users, that’s a great idea, but not actual security that is baked into the OS. They leave that upto the Manufacturers and Carriers. Ofcourse it was intentional in the name of Marketing but it benefits no one but Google, Manufacturers, and Carriers. When your device is done with its 2 year contract and Stock ROM (with udpates as far as they’ll go), your phone becomes a Paper weight. Who was there to make that phone usable, secure, and upto date? Cyanogenmod. They supported phones when Google, Manufacturers, and Carriers no longer cared to do so since there was no money in it for them. So I wish the CM team the best of luck and bring out your best Talent because this disgustingly over priced, under serviced, market needs competition and serious attention towards the benefit of the consumer, not the corporation. Let’s hope CM has it in their ethos to balance it out. We all know that when its a startup, they are not evil, but Google ate its own motto a long time ago. Let’s do this.
ocdhd
August 21, 2015
What Google needs is a swift kick in the rear by something a fraction of its size and Lean. People have had enough with Google’s 200MB Gapps Bloating up their phones, constant wakelocks, battery drains, inefficient security model. Rather than taking Control of security updates such as the recent Stagefright fiasco, Google has managed to take features away from the user in the name of security. In other words, protecting users from themselves, and from other users, that’s a great idea, but not actual security that is baked into the OS. They leave that upto the Manufacturers and Carriers. Ofcourse it was intentional in the name of Marketing but it benefits no one but Google, Manufacturers, and Carriers. When your device is done with its 2 year contract and Stock ROM (with udpates as far as they’ll go), your phone becomes a Paper weight. Who was there to make that phone usable, secure, and upto date? Cyanogenmod. They supported phones when Google, Manufacturers, and Carriers no longer cared to do so since there was no money in it for them. So I wish the CM team the best of luck and bring out your best Talent because this disgustingly over priced, under serviced, market needs competition and serious attention towards the benefit of the consumer, not the corporation. Let’s hope CM has it in their ethos to balance it out. We all know that when its a startup, they are not evil, but Google ate its own motto a long time ago. Let’s do this.