CyanogenMod is pushing ahead with its plan to become the third largest mobile platform. According to the company's official stats page, the custom Android ROM has now been installed on over 10 million devices, up from around 8 million back in September. The figure is split between official downloads from their site, totaling 5,451,770 as of writing, and 4,579,284 unofficial installs.
It's worth noting that hat devices that haven't checked in with the CyanogenMod database within 90 days are removed, meaning the 10 million installs figure comprises hardware that's actively being used. Moreover CEO Kirk McMaster has previously said that they only track the minority of users who opt to send feedback data back to Cyanogen, and that the true user base (back in September) was closer to 16 - 24 million.
That's quite impressive considering most people will turn away from modifying their device and just stick with the pre-installed version of Android instead. The company believes Cyanogen's wild growth has been fueled by carriers' inclusion of bloatware with devices and their unwillingness to provide timely updates or continue supporting old models. Just look at the device breakdown; the phone with the most installs is Samsung's three year old Galaxy S with 510,913, followed closely by the Galaxy S II released in 2011 totaling 494,178 installs.
Their numbers are likely to keep growing now that they've taken steps to untangle the installation process with new desktop and mobile apps, as well as OTA updates. Cyanogen has also secured $30 million in the past three months to help with their commercial efforts and partnered with Oppo on a version of its flagship N1 with CyanogenMod preinstalled and certified by Google – meaning it will come pre-loaded with Google Play. If everything goes according to plan we might soon see phones from Samsung and HTC with CM pre-installed.