Cyanogen, a new startup, has poached two top-notch executives from QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) to fulfill its ambition of developing an alternative OS for the mobiles.
The company aims to develop its own version of the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android. The new version will be more flexible and open when compared to the Google Android. The two executives have considerable talent in the development and engineering aspects of operating a business involving the apps, key services, and chipsets.
The company will position Stephen Lawler as head of the engineering operations worldwide while Karthick Iyer will head the Global Systems as the Vice President.
In his previous tenure, Lawler has worked as Vice President (Direct Traffic and Products) at Amazon and Chief Executive Officer (Bing Maps) at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). He was also a board member at Waze, which was later acquired by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
Lawler has a considerable insight in leading the development of mapping, mobile, search, location and cloud services.
Iyer has involved in the development of Android Solution for the Snapdragon Chipsets with a team of about 500 top-notch engineers. He has considerable experience in end-to-end applications of the Android.
According to the Chief Executive Officer, Kirt McMaster at Cyanogen, both are pioneers in leading a world-class computing services and platforms. They will help to scale up the operations through developing drivers to run seamlessly on the chipsets.
The latest strengthening of design and engineering talent is on the backdrop of investment of Foxconn and Microsoft. According to the known sources, the total investment as on today in Cyanogen is estimated at $110 million.
Apart from planning to clinch a market share of 14% this year, McMaster is aiming to garner at least quarter of the Android market share across the world in the next five years.
Cynogen will include Microsoft Services and apps in its product offering. The company will embrace Microsoft OneNote, OneDrive, Skype, Office, Bing Services and Outlook to position its products in the top level.
