Why is Microsoft talking to CyanogenMod Android team?

The smartphone world has been rocked (ok, perhaps not rocked, but certainly somewhat shaken) by the news that Microsoft has held talks with the team at CyanogenMod.

And not just any old person at Microsoft, but head honcho Satya Nadella.

If you're new to CyanogenMod, they're a team of developers who take the Android operating system and heavily skin it with literally dozens of new features so users can extensively customise their devices.

It's been big for some time among modders and is now getting legitimised by being preinstalled on the OnePlus One smartphone that's taking the smartphone world by storm (ok, perhaps not storm exactly, but certainly putting the wind up other hardware manufacturers).

So why is Nadella talking to CyanogenMod?

There's much speculation that Microsoft may want to buy out the team and start using the modded Android OS on Lumia devices.

But this seems unlikely.

Microsoft has invested heavily in Windows Phone and still sees a future for the OS, even though marketshare is proving hard to get.

Much more likely is Nadella wants CyanogenMod to include Microsoft apps in its OS package. Think OneDrive, Bing and all the others.

Now that would really be one in the eye for Google. And Microsoft would love to poke several fingers in all of Google's eyes.

We could be wrong, but we're confident that hats won't be eaten.