LG Electronics, WebOS license to other companies

It made clear the policy of licensing the WebOS, which LG Electronics is adopting for smart TVs, to other products. WebOS is an operating system developed by Palm and HP, originally supposed to be used on smartphones. LG Electronics acquired WebOS in 2013 and released an open source version in 2018, but in reality it is not used for anything other than LG products.

LG Electronics acquired WebOS and installed it on smart home appliances such as refrigerators at first, but recently adopted it for smart TVs, supporting multiple video streaming services, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Home and AirPlay, and other competitors including Android TV. It provides more diverse contents.

Under this license, LG Electronics can become a direct competitor to Android TV, and has already partnered with RCA, Ayonz, and Konka. However, none of these three companies handle Android TV and other smart TVs, but since there are many TV manufacturers that use LG Display panels, it may be relatively easy to adopt webOS with panels in the future.

LG Electronics announced WebOS 6.0 during the last CES 2021 and includes UI improvements. However, it is expected to be used for licenses prior to WebOS 5.0. Anyway, if a product with webOS is released as an operating system equipped with a smart TV, attention is drawn to how much it will be able to compete with the product line with Android TV. Related information can be found here.