HP Sells WebOS To LG
LG said today it was acquiring WebOS from Hewlett-Packard, with the intention to use the operating system not for its mobile phones, but in its smart televisions. With the deal, LG obtains the source code for WebOS, related documentation, engineering talent, and related WebOS Web sites. LG also gets HP licenses for use with its WebOS products, and patents HP obtained from Palm. The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
This is sad. Not only is WebOS dead again, but I have kind of wanted a printer that ran decent firmware.
LG will likely kill WebOS in a couple of years, as I don’t think the company appreciates good software design enough to realise the potential. Problem is, WebOS is doomed irrespective of its owner; all the talent has already defected to iOS and Android.