Every now and again we get hit with a piece of news that we really weren’t expecting, and this is one of those cases. webOS is going to be revived thanks to a buyout, and the company taking on the OS that HP ditched is none other than LG.
The Korean tech giant unfortunately won’t be using webOS to create new smartphones and bringing back the good old days where the Palm Pre was a viable smartphone to buy. Instead it will be using the software in its future Smart TVs, so there’s a good chance that if you buy an LG Smart TV in the future you’ll be using webOS in your living room.
We’ve heard reports that LG was planning to utilise webOS for something a few months back, and now those rumours have substance thanks to LG taking the software off HP’s hands.
The deal includes the source code for webOS along with associated websites, documentation and ‘engineering talent’, so presumably LG will take on any remaining staff from HP who have been working on the software.
LG already has a platform in use for its Smart TVs, so whether it will completely switch to webOS or simply integrate it remains to be seen. If it were to switch completely to webOS we could see Android apps ported across to bring more content to LG’s tellys in the future, which can only be a good thing.