Since members of the CyanogenMod Team became Cyanogen Inc., we've seen them work more and more closely with Oppo. A version of the new flagship, Oppo N1 is coming soon with CyanogenMod and recently we've been hearing some very exciting things. Specifically that Oppo and Cyanogen Inc. would begin work on a new brand outside of Oppo's main reach, that focused on bringing super high-end hardware together with CyanogenMod. The above photo is from Steve Kondik's Google+ page and features himself and Koushik Dutta with Pete Lau, an Oppo VP. In the same post he said:

A few weeks ago, +Koushik Dutta and I were able to meet with +Pete Lau in Shenzhen and we began discussing our vision for a phone that would fuse truly amazing software with the highest quality hardware available. Together, we're setting out to create that product. Stay tuned. Advertisement

Since then, rumors of a device powered by a 2.5 Ghz variant of the Snapdragon 800 hit the web thanks to Pete Lau's own comments on China's premium social network, Sina Weibo, saying that a "perfect Android flagship device" is on the horizon. This is all pretty exciting news as Oppo has already proven themselves capable of delivering incredible devices, at the same time extending a hand to the Android community, allowing for unlocked bootloaders and ROMs like CyanogenMod to continue on their devices.

Now though, Pete Lau has announced that he's leaving Oppo, as Engadget is reporting. So, it would seem that Lau has left Oppo to form a new company, perhaps like Oppo was spun-off from BBK in the first place. However, all of that is still a little unclear. When rumors of this new brand first hit the web, it was detailed as something very separate from Oppo, and what better way to keep things separate than by forming a new subsidiary or whole new firm altogether? Going forward, this sort of thing could prove very interesting for Oppo, CyanogenMod and whatever new entity is formed from all of this.