Cyanogen seems to be going back and forth on their OTA update issue that has been in the news since they announced their exclusive partnership with Micromax.
On December 4th, much to the delight of Indians, they published a blog post titled “Cyanogen’s Commitment to our Users”, where they mentioned,
To clarify misinformation out there, the OnePlus One will get OTA firmware updates for all global devices, including global devices for our users in India. Rather than have misinformation continue to circulate out there, we felt it important to bring this matter to rest
However, 3 days after that update, they seem to have made a U turn – They have now published another blog post where they say that everyone else will get the OTA update except for people who have bought OnePlus One phones in India through Amazon.
Here is the text of the update released by Cyanogen on December 7th
Since we clarified our support for OTA firmware updates for OnePlus One global devices, we’ve received a number of inquiries regarding OnePlus One devices sold in India.
As we had pledged to our users, OnePlus One global devices will receive our OTA firmware updates. If a user in India purchased a OnePlus One global device in channels outside of India, they will receive our OTA firmware updates. However, this excludes OnePlus One regional devices sold directly in India. We are committed to our exclusive partnership in India with Micromax, which will be launching its first Cyanogen OS device under their new YU brand.
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Since we clarified our support for OTA firmware updates for OnePlus One global devices, we’ve received a number of inquiries regarding OnePlus One devices sold in India.
As we had pledged to our users, OnePlus One global devices will receive our OTA firmware updates. If a user in India purchased a OnePlus One global device in channels outside of India, they will receive our OTA firmware updates. However, this excludes OnePlus One regional devices sold directly in India. We are committed to our exclusive partnership in India with Micromax, which will be launching its first Cyanogen OS device under their new YU brand.
Why is Cyanogen playing this game?
Yes, in my view it was a game played by Cyanogen and I will tell you why.
What was the controversy that arose when Cyanogen forged an exclusive partnership with Micromax? The controversy was that due to the exclusive partnership, Cyanogen will stop providing any support to Indian users and they will not get any OTA or “Over The Air” updates.
The controversy was purely from point of view of Indians who had mostly purchased the phones through Amazon in India.
Obviously Cyanogen knew very well what the whole controversy was all about – and yet they published a statement (December 4 Update) that clearly gave an impression that “Indian handsets will get OTA update”. And after 4 days suddenly they have made a U turn.
Yes, they did use the word “Global Devices” that point to users who bought the handset from their main site and imported to Indian address, but clearly they should have clarified that “handsets bought from Amazon in India” will not get it.
I think it is clear that Micromax is now putting pressure on Cyanogen to shun OnePlus One completely in India (which they have already done), and want to ensure that Cyanogen comes exclusively on Micromax Yu phones, which they will probably highlight as it’s USP!
Whatever said and done, I think Indian users will be quite disappointed!
On the flipside though, Indian users of OnePlus One do not have to worry much. While OTA update is not available, they can flash the ROM with global update and the OnePlus One should then work perfectly. It is just that they may need some technical know how (which I guess most OnePlus One buyers have)
What do you think?
[…] Indian users were earlier unhappy that they may not get this update due to Cyanogen’s exclusive partnership with Micromax’s Yu Yureka. But, it is clear now that the update will be available globally to everyone, including OnePlus […]