Pete Lau (above, center) is a name you might not be familiar with, but he was once the Vice President of Oppo, the Chinese handset maker that recently agreed to ship a limited edition version of one of their devices with CyanogenMod preloaded. Today was Pete’s last day at work, he’s just resigned. Why? According to Engadget, Pete wants to build a brand new company, from the ground up, that will be powered by the CyanogenMod ROM.

Why didn’t Pete try to get Oppo to focus on CyanogenMod more? I’m going to bet that he did, but his superiors didn’t like the idea of throwing out the many years of work spent on the company’s own Android skin. That and Oppo probably didn’t want to turn their back on the Oppo community, because without them Oppo wouldn’t be where it is today.

So what chance of success does Pete have if he teams up with the CyanogenMod people? Well, chances are Pete knows Oppo’s suppliers. He also probably knows some of their designers. And he also likely knows how to translate an idea into a product in less than six months. All of these are crucial if he wants to get a device out the door.

Why should you even be excited about CyanogenMod? That’s a question I ask myself at least once a week. People who use CyanogenMod tell me that I have to try it out in order to understand, but honestly, the whole rooting my phone and voiding my warranty thing freaks me out too much. If there’s an actual “CyanogenPhone” on the other hand, then I’ll be sure to give it a go, assuming it has Google’s apps legally installed.