webOS alive in smart TVs

The Linux-based webOS that was dropped for smartphones, is alive and kicking in smart TVs.

 

Korean firm LG on Monday said it enjoyed brisk sales of its smart TVs running the operating system just three months after it launched the lineup last March.

 

“Reaching the one million mark in just three months is a significant achievement in the TV industry,” said In-kyu Lee, senior vice president and head of the TV division at the LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company.

 

The LG official said part of the success could be due to the company focusing on simplicity with its 2014 Smart+ TVs with webOS instead of adding "more and more functions" that "few people will ever use."

 

"Consumers seem to share our view that this is the right direction for the evolution of smart TVs going forward," Lee said.

 

LG said it expects sales of the webOS-enabled smart TVs to reach 10 million by the first half of 2015.

 

For now, the company expects to be in over 150 markets by the end of June.

 

It is also planning to expand the presence of LG Smart+ TV Experience Zones in major consumer electronics retail locations.

 

LG said its Smart+ TVs have earned the approval of international product testing and certification organizations Underwriters Laboratories and Intertek.

 

"Both of these influential bodies — as well as most industry media titles — have positively noted LG’s ultra-convenient user interface as being a significant evolution in the development of smart TVs," it said.

 

A separate article on The Verge noted LG basically bought webOS from HP in early 2013, and successfully transplanted it from smartphones and tablets to TVs.

 

It added that while LG's interface is "wildly different" from the vision of original maker Palm, it "retains the card paradigm and web apps that first appeared on Palm's Pre smartphone."  — Joel Locsin/ELR, GMA News