LG smartTV with webOS Open

[jcmarcos]

Originally Posted by Remy X

When there's Android, brand loyalty goes out the window.. people just look at build quality and price.

Not quite, at least here in Spain: People have raised Samsung to the iconic level iPhone had before: Everyone wants "a Samsung", without even knowing what its good for - the same belief they had for Apple months before. Well, for sure it does a lot of things, and doesn't have that locked garden feeling to it. But that "most wanted" status it has reached is something new.

Back to topic, I don't think anyone is surprised here for the LG deal going nowhere. I'd like to know how much reality was into it, but nonetheless, that changes nothing. Like I said, it lloked completely out of expectations, starting with a technical one: webOS has nothing to offer for a TV device. For god's sake, make a phone! The only realistic route is the Nexus port, and yet it progresses very slowly, as expected.

So, LG affair is over, and it's time to move on... But now with a bigger fear for the question "where?". Not to mention other questions such as "when?" and "how?".

There's a limited amount of time one can keep a brand's value, before is considered an industry joke...

[Vistaus]

@jcmarcos: Same here in The Netherlands. On forums here there are constantly fights between the iPhone crowd and the Samsung crowd.

@Remy X: Well, you can say what you want but if the market wants something different then webOS is the way to go because it IS different. It just needs some love by someone who cares (well, at least someone who's committed, like Palm used to be). You can say a lot about Palm and I do agree that they failed as much as HP but honestly, the developers over at Palm were almost gonna marry webOS lol. The developers did their best with what they had to bring out an outstanding OS, even though there were some bugs up till today. But they were willing to fix it should they had given the oppertunity.
So it needs money and love, that's all it takes to get webOS back on its feet. We have the core apps which are good enough for most casual people and we got some popular stuff like Angry Birds. Now all we need is more 3rd party apps, which HP has the money to invest in. Then get the devices out there and webOS will be at least an interesting 4th player by 2014. But again: that requires money and love by HP.

[C_McGuire]

Originally Posted by Vistaus

..... But again: that requires money and love by HP.

But it's too bad that HP doesn't have that kind of cash to throw around. They're too busy buying either failed or fraudulent companies and writing down Billions of dollars in losses.

Double -U - Tee - Eff, seriously...

[Remy X]

Originally Posted by Vistaus

Well, you can say what you want but if the market wants something different then webOS is the way to go because it IS different. It just needs some love by someone who cares (well, at least someone who's committed, like Palm used to be). You can say a lot about Palm and I do agree that they failed as much as HP but honestly, the developers over at Palm were almost gonna marry webOS lol. The developers did their best with what they had to bring out an outstanding OS, even though there were some bugs up till today. But they were willing to fix it should they had given the opportunity.
So it needs money and love, that's all it takes to get webOS back on its feet. We have the core apps which are good enough for most casual people and we got some popular stuff like Angry Birds. Now all we need is more 3rd party apps, which HP has the money to invest in. Then get the devices out there and webOS will be at least an interesting 4th player by 2014. But again: that requires money and love by HP.

Well, i care

I have my heap of research and notes (that get slowly transformed into working solutions), RumoredNow and i are still working on the independent app store, dkirker is working on the browser with a modern WebKit, the Internals people are all hard at work on open webOS. The Homebrew community is more than capable of picking up where the Palm developers left off, however that does nothing to cure the boardroom politics at all those big hardware manufacturers.

I will always respect the dedication that Palm developers had, their valiant effort despite the odds, and the Homebrew community working tireslessly to make webOS even better. But we've been out-funded by Google maybe 100 times over. There's big money behind Android, and lots of excitement behind FirefoxOS. This is the people we have to compete against. The undisputed kings of mobile, iOS and Android, then FirefoxOS whose success has been handed to them even before they sold a single handset, AND there are other companies vying for #4, such as Microsoft, RIM/Blackberry, Jolla (Sailfish OS)... it is crowded.

I'm not saying that we can't succeed. I sure hope we can, putting my own time and effort towards it. But no-one is waiting for us with an outstretched hand like they are for Firefox. We have to work even harder to impress anyone. There are other people between us and the "market"... the hardware vendors, the carriers which subsidize phones and their employees that work the floor selling phones to customers. We have to get through all that before the market is ours. It's not enough to just have a superior product on hand...


As for HP investing money in 3rd party apps, they've tried that, but sadly failed at quality control... whoever came for the easy money wasn't interested in a future, just a paycheck and users be damned. So, throwing money at a problem is only half of a solution.

Anyway, this wasn't meant in any way to diminish what you've said. I think we agree that besides a good product in itself, success requires money, smart and focused management, and finally corporate muscle-power.


P.S. I've only been here two months... even if i don't yet have anything to show and brag about, it doesn't mean i'm sitting on the sidelines... it takes time to get a deep knowledge of the OS and that's taken priority over releasing "something"

[Vistaus]

Of course I have much respect for the homebrew community and I'm trying my best to contribute and help (still rockin' my Touchpad every day for lots of things for 1,5 years now!).

It's just that I was talking about the big picture, the one where webOS becomes viable in the big market again. That's why I mentioned the original Palm developers. It wasn't to make the community look stupid or something, I was just talking from a marketing perspective.

And yes, of course it also takes carriers but I was talking about the beginning... I mean, you have to start with a good product. If you have nothing to show to the carriers then they're not gonna take you seriously. So you have to start somewhere and that was where I was getting at...

But of course I do agree that the community makes the best of it and I still rock my webOS every day, partially due to them, so kudos to all the hard working people, I love this community!

(and yes, I'm also a sideline guy; my first webOS device was my Touchpad that I still rock every day but I've been watching from the sideline since webOS first hit the market)

[Remy X]

I understand.

At this moment, right now the Homebrew community is all there is, this is where the innovation is at. HP/Gram is just waiting for someone to come up and license the OS, and they are not doing anything that will make everyone go "Wow!"

This kind of passive corporate support doesn't compare well with all of the other players in the industry, that's all.

Homebrew carries all of the weight, and while i can do my part patching the OS (though at this very moment i'm still fixing some abandoned apps), or adding support for other languages, testing interesting new concepts and learning from the Homebrew veterans, it's still only one component of success. We can't count on anything being handed to us on a platter, and the road ahead is indeed very hard.

[Vistaus]

Sidenote: can't wait for you to release patches/revive abandoned apps. Do you need a beta tester perhaps?

[jcmarcos]

Originally Posted by dignitary

jcmarcos can probably understand why I'm giggling like an adolescent at this right now.

Huh? Actually, I don't...

(Hint: Search 'webos' on Twitter and you'll realize what it's slang for in Spanish.)

Aha! That was a good one! Back on topic, I was very happy to read about the hard work going on into our beloved platform!

[Herrie]

How does the "Smart TV Alliance" relate to Open webOS? Seems like a lot of major players have joined Philips' "Smart TV Alliance" already INCLUDING LG! They're talking HTML5, CSS3, Javascript etc, but that doesn't mean Open webOS of course, though it would be one of the possibilities. It would be silly to re-invent the weel, but then again it's Philips, they're known for that :'(

Panasonic, ABOX42, IBM, Specific Media and TechniSat Expand 'Build Once, Run Everywhere' Smart TV Alliance Ecosystem - MarketWatch

[Vistaus]

So apperantly LG is going with OpenWebOS because Derek just blogged about it. And he's our webOS front page writer guy so if he says so ........

[Derek Kessler]

That's usually how things work around here, yes.

[RumoredNow]

I was looking at news on another Mobile oriented site and LG did not announce any new mobile devices in their CES 2013 opener...

They are touting NFC phone/appliance interactions... Based on their Android line of phones...

Including their "Most Advanced in the Industry" line of Google TVs.

[cgk]

Well it was only a unsourced rumour to start with - I think Derek did do a "oh wait.. nothing at CES afterall post" a while back.

[Vistaus]

Originally Posted by cgk

Well it was only a unsourced rumour to start with - I think Derek did do a "oh wait.. nothing at CES afterall post" a while back.

If that's true then I don't get why he mentioned this 'LG is going with Open WebOS' in his newest post (about room for webOS in the market).

[webOSnomad]

Because someone leaked the rumour to him, after which everyone was told to STFU about possible deals. Should a certain Korean company wish to partner with an unannounced spin off from an American company, it's highly unlikely you'd see anything mentioned officially because we're talking months of R&D to get an OS we know and love to do something it's never been asked to do (officially) over a wide ranging set of specs.

Remember, you leak information either to tease fans (look at RIM and BB10), or it's by accident because you wouldn't want your competition a head start in trying to beat your new idea.

[cgk]

Originally Posted by Vistaus

If that's true then I don't get why he mentioned this 'LG is going with Open WebOS' in his newest post (about room for webOS in the market).

Who knows? All we currently have is an unsourced rumour with absolutely nothing to back it, so the story can change every day of the week. If LG every actually do something then we have something to talk about but otherwise it is is just another "X is going to use WebOS!" story.

[jcmarcos]

Sometimes, foretelling reserved information about something real turns it into unreal: Suits are usually scared away easily as soon as something doesn't follow "the plan", and if the plan was to stay under the radar...

Or perhaps it was just a carefully crafted plan, for LG to get lower prices from Google: Threaten them with the Open webOS second option. But it this was so, why choosing such a weak option as webOS in this front?

One of the hardest things about investigation journalism is when it's better to keep something for yourself. I for one would have proceeded just like our Derek.

Can I please shout again: Make a mobile phone, for God's sake! It has to be easier that taking the world of TV sets by storm!

[cgk]

Or it simply didn't exist to start with? Without any actual supporting evidence, that is the most parsimonious answer available to us.