October 5th, 2009 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Platforms: AndroidOS | No Comments »
Last week, Android developer Cyanogen received a cease and desist letter from Google because it was violating the rules as it was distributing closed source applications in it's own Android versions.
The closed source programs in question where Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube and Market. This despite the rest of the OS being Open Source. As the OS developer knows, consumers will be less interested in it when these apps are missing so it has created a workaround that seems legal after all.
Now, when consumers wish to upgrade their Android OS from Google's to that of Cyanogen, they will first have to launch a back-up program. This will backup all installed apps and re-install them after the device had it's firmware upgrade. This way, it is not distributing the apps and the consumer is responsible for installing them with the rom. Cyanogen will also introduce their own alternative for Android Market (here we go again).
We wonder if the back-up software will also back-up purchased games and if so, how easy they are to distribute. Such software could be a real pain for the still slow Android market.
