Samsung will manufacture the Tizen-based Z1 in India

Samsung will manufacture the Tizen-based Z1 smartphone in India. The Korean giant launched the affordable device in the country earlier this month.

The device’s manufacturing process will take place in Samsung’s Noida facility in India. The company’s Vice President of Marketing for India confirmed the news.
Targeted a first-time smartphone buyers, the dual-SIM Samsung Z1 is priced at Rs 5,700 (about $93). According to industry sources, the Korean giant has sold about 50,000-55,000 units of the handset since its launch in mid-January. This is a stellar achievement for the Tizen device considering the highly competitive price segment it inhabits.
Samsung will soon launch the Z1 in Bangladesh. The device is not likely to make it to more mature global markets.

Cyanogen looking to break dependence from Google

At an event in San Francisco, the CEO of Cyanogen Inc. Kirt McMaster spoke about the company's bold plans about the future. As it turns out, Cyanogen has ambitions “to take Android away from Google.”

Cyanogen wants to provide an open version of Android on a deeper level than what’s currently available. This will allow the company to offer its partners “tier one services.”
McMaster gave Google Now as an example. The search giant’s mighty personal assistant interacts with the core of Android in a way third-party apps are not allowed to. Cyanogen plans to give such access to apps made by their partners. One example discussed was Yahoo’s Aviate launcher, which could benefit from such deep integration into the OS. of course, for that to become a reality, Yahoo would have to team up with Cyanogen, so for now that remains only an example.
Furthermore, Cyanogen plans to “not be based on some derivative of Google in three to five years.” This means that the company plans to break away from Google Play services. The latter are unsurprisingly firmly controlled by the search giant.
Cyanogen plans to break away from Google Play services by creating its own app store in collaboration with partners. The latter is expected to go live within 18 months.
Overall, it appears that Cyanogen has more or less had it with Google and its control over Android. We are quite curious to find out if the small, yet ambitious company can materialize its bold plans. So far, only Amazon has somewhat managed to do so, though, it is worth noting, that the retail giant has considerably more resources than Cyanogen.