AppleInsider Staff
LG on Monday announced it has acquired the webOS operating system from Hewlett-Packard, which it will use to power its next-generation television sets.
LG announced at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that it has purchased HP's webOS Global Business Unit. The deal reportedly includes all of the patents, employees, and source code associated with the operating system originally developed by Palm.
Instead of using webOS to power smartphones or tablets, as was done previously, LG said it plans to use the software on forthcoming television sets. Details on LG's acquisition were first reported on Monday by CNet.
With webOS on its HDTVs, LG plans to offer an "intuitive user experience and Internet services," said Skott Ahn, president and chief technology officer at LG Electronics Inc. The webOS team will work at LG's new Silicon Valley Lab. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition by LG marks the latest twist and turn in the strange history of webOS. The platform was first developed by Palm, which was then headed by ex-Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, and it powered the company's Pre smartphone lineup before the struggling company was sold to HP for $1.2 billion in 2010.
HP acquired Palm primarily to own webOS, and used the platform for its TouchPad tablet, which debuted in 2011. But after seeing slow sales after only weeks on the market, HP decided to abandon the TouchPad and move remaining inventory with a $99 fire sale.
HP then announced last year that webOS would live on as an open source project. Rubinstein, who joined HP through its acquisition of Palm, also left the PC maker last year.
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79 Comments
Doh. I don't get with the size, scope, and history if HP how they can't be a viable contender like Sumdung and LookPee. Perhaps they will move to Android based devices? I would love to have another American company in the electronics game.
PREDICTION: Six to nine months from now, LG leaves the TV market.
WebOS is the STD of software.
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/156156/lg-acquires-webos-from-hp-to-power-smart-hdtv-sets#post_2283491"][B]PREDICTION:[/B] Six to nine months from now, LG leaves the TV market. WebOS is the STD of software. [/quote] STD From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia STD may refer to: [LIST=1] [*] Sexually transmitted disease [*] Subscriber trunk dialling, also known as subscriber toll dialling, allowing subscribers to dial trunk calls without operator assistance. [*] Doctor of Sacred Theology (Sacrae Theologiae Doctor) [*] São Tomé and Príncipe dobra, the ISO 4217 code for the currency of São Tomé and Príncipe [*] Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq, one of the many incarnations of the Sunbeam Car Company [*] Grupo Santander, The New York Stock Exchange symbol [*] Schaffer The Darklord, a nerdcore rapper from Queens, New York. [*] C++ Standard Library [*] STD, followed by an integer, is a designation of an RFC that has been accepted as an Internet Standard [*] Stroud railway station (National Rail code) in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England [*] Scheduled Time of Departure, the time advertised by an airline (or other transport company) as the time a flight (or other form of transport) is due to start its journey. [*] std, the set direction flag instruction on x86 compatible CPUs, opposite of cld [*] Mayor Buenaventura Vivas Airport, in Santo Domingo, Venezuela (IATA code STD) [*] Internet Standard, abbreviated as STD, e.g. "STD 1" [*] S-T-D, STD is a Linux-based Security Tool,S-T-D [*] Save the date, a notice stating the date of a significant event such as a wedding [/LIST] Perhaps something else on TS's mind...
PREDICTION: Six to nine months from now, LG leaves the TV market.
WebOS is the STD of software.
LOL! Nice to start Monday with a laugh.
At least this way it'll get used, I still find it hard to believe just how badly HP screwed up with Web OS. Was it perfect, no. Could it have been a genuine competitor to iOS and Android, absolutely, at least in my opinion.