CyanogenMod Eyes the Mainstream, Now Downloaded 10 Million Times

If you’ve got an old, unsupported Android handset laying around that’s been severely lacking for updates, you might want to give CyanogenMod a try. Essentially a stock version of Android built from the AOSP (the Android Open Source Project) with a few modifications and niceties, including improved support for low end and underpowered handsets, CyanogenMod has long been the perfect companion to any old Android smartphone. And now, nearly four years after developer Steve Kondik, founder of CyanogenMod, released the first version of his take on Android, CyanogenMod is beginning to go mainstream –  CyanogenMod has now been downloaded a grand total of 10 million times.

This number originates from CyanogenMod’s automated statistics page, which tracks overall installs, installs by version, as well as installs by device. From here we can garner some interesting statistics – the single device with the most installs happens to be the original Samsung Galaxy S, a shining example of CyanogenMod’s support for a device that is now well over three years old, and one that hasn’t received an official update from Samsung in years.

This comes following another piece of great news for CyanogenMod. Just last week, the folks down at Google gave certification to the Oppo N1, the first ever device shipping with CyanogenMod pre-loaded. That means that the Oppo N1 will begin shipping tomorrow with the full suite of Google applications, including, perhaps most importantly, the Google Play Store. This marks the first time Google has officially acknowledged the authenticity of CyanogenMod, not long after removing the CyanogenMod OTA Installer Package from the Google Play Store.

Have you used CyanogenMod, and if so, are you excited for the direction this small but clearly growing platform is heading in? Let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear your experiences!