Renowned Android developer and custom ROM extraordinaire, Steve Kondik, has revealed that he has joined the Samsung Mobile team as a software engineer. Kondik, better known as Cyanogen and the father of popular custom ROM CyanogenMod, recently added Samsung Mobile as his place of work on Facebook and posted updates saying he would be travelling to Dallas and Seattle (home of two major Samsung offices) in the coming days.
Kondik has said that his new employer is in no way related to his CyanogenMod project, so it’s unlikely that we’ll be seeing his custom ROMs embedded as official ROMs on Samsung devices. Despite this, his expertise will certainly come in handy for the guys at Samsung Mobile and he mentioned that he will be “working on making Android more awesome”.
Samsung Mobile has been known for their great relationship with Cyanogen and the team. They sent developers of CyanogenMod flagship Samsung Galaxy S II devices to help out the team deliver the custom ROM love to it. The company also have not imposed any strict and unpopular bootloader locking schemes on their range of devices, unlike Motorola and HTC, allowing the community to easily install custom software to enhance or change the stock Samsung experience.
It is unclear whether Kondik will continue to front the development of CyanogenMod while working at Samsung Mobile, but we’re sure the ROM will continue to flourish and remain popular either way.
Image courtesy of Android and Me