Posted Tue Feb 26, 2013 at 09:00 AM PST by Brian Hoss
Palm's ill-fated smart phone operating system may find new use after Hewlett-Packard.
A ghost of 2009, WebOS was Palm's Linux-based operating system, built to compete head-to-head with Apple in phones and tablets. The operating system failed to gain traction in part due to a lack of app development. Since Hewlett-Packard's 2010 acquisition of Palm, WebOS has bounced back and forth between different ambitions within HP. Now though LG has a deal to acquire the source code and engineering talent, while HP retains the patents and cloud-computing assets.
LG's plan, however, is not to push WebOS into its handsets, as Android has that market well in hand. That apparently leaves an entire spectrum of other consumer devices that LG has ambitions for, including kitchen appliances and automobiles. The main target would seem to be TVs, suggesting that Smart TVs of the Google variety do not fit into LG's future.
LG has been working with Open WebOS for some time, so hopefully the new functionality is not far off, If successful perhaps LG can capture consumer's interest with a new take on smart TV/set-top box functionality.
Source:eWeek
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