LG Electronics has acquired the webOS operating system - originally created by Palm four years ago - from HP. This includes the webOS source code, documentation, engineering talent and related websites. In addition, HP will also license LG to use patent that cover system and user interface technologies with its webOS products.
LG says it’s planning to use webOS on its Smart TV products and has made no mention of smartphones or tablets.
Skott Ahn, president and chief technology officer at LG Electronics, said “This groundbreaking development demonstrates LG’s commitment to investing in talent and research in Silicon Valley, one of the world’s innovation hotbeds. It creates a new path for LG to offer an intuitive user experience and Internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices. The open and transparent webOS technology offers a compelling user experience that, when combined with our own technology, will pave the way for future innovations using the latest Web technologies.”
Former HP webOS sites in Sunnyvale and San Francisco will be added to LG’s R&D locations, forming the new LG Silicon Valley Lab. LG will assume stewardship of the open source Open WebOS and Enyo projects, while HP will continue to support Palm users and will retain ownership of all Palm’s cloud computing assets.