Alcatel OneTouch Hero 2+ with Cyanogen cancelled

Alcatel OneTouch and Cyanogen have today announced that the Hero 2+ phablet, which was announced at MWC in Barcelona running Cyanogen OS, will no longer be released to the market. In a statement, the company announced a mutual agreement not to go ahead with the release of the handset as it ‘does not have a clear Android 5.1 upgrade path’.

The public statement from Alcatel OneTouch’s Steve Cistulli and Vikram Natarajan of Cyanogen, reads:

ALCATEL ONETOUCH and Cyanogen, Inc. have made a mutual decision to forgo the release of the HERO 2+. At its announcement, the goal of bringing this device to market was to offer the most advanced hardware and software at an affordable price. The bar was set high and unfortunately the device does not have a clear Android 5.1 upgrade path. We therefore are committing to refocus our joint efforts on a next-generation product that can exceed the expectations of end users. Our teams remain dedicated to releasing an ALCATEL ONETOUCH device powered by Cyanogen OS, and are looking to share an update when we have more details to share.

Both companies said they are still commitment to launching an Alcatel OneTouch device running Cyanogen OS but didn’t give any further details on the plans.

The OneTouch Hero 2+ was a Cyanogen-clad variant of last year’s Hero 2 and was set to make its debut in the US with a $299 price tag. The handset features a 6-inch 1080p TFT display, an octa-core MediaTek 6592 processor clocked at 2GHz, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage, which can be expanded using a microSD card slot. Other notable specs of the handset include a built-in stylus, a 3100 mAh battery, 13MP camera with 1080p video recording and a 5MP front facing camera.

The key sticking point for the handset was that it shipped running Cyanogen OS 11 out of the box, which was based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat and the lack of complete upgrade path to the latest OS seems to have been fatal for the Hero 2+. The cancellation of the Hero 2+ is likely to be a hinderance to Cyanogen’s plans to become a global platform and while the companies still plan work together, it’s likely that this will prove to be a costly delay.