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OK, here's my response:
I take a look most days, but today I came from hearing a report on the radio (BBC) so there's another source. I was half listening, but my ears *****ed up at "Mobile World Congress" and then, "LG has bought webOS for televisions". I assumed it was a mistake and that the reporter meant "brought". However, I thought I'd check here to see if the rumoured smart TV would add anything to the webOS story.
What a surprise! WebOS has in fact been BOUGHT in it's entirety (staff included!) by LG - a major electronics company and the 5th largest mobile manufacturer!
It is only televisions at the moment, but the quote from Skott Ahn is "It creates a new path for LG to offer an intuitive user experience and internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices." He did not say a range of televisions, he said a range of consumer devices.
From wikipedia:
"LG Electronics' products include computers, televisions, mobile phones, home appliances and semiconductors."
So let's tick off televisions and of course, ignore semiconductors. Home appliances? Maybe.. (I haven't found an LG toaster yet). What's left? Computers and mobile. I'm not convinced webOS is the best fit for the desktop, but obviously, I am convinced for mobile.
After the HP debacle, I'm wary of making any guesses, but let's be optimistic for a moment:
* The CNET article said LG would continue to support phone users.
* Skott Ahn: "a range of consumer electronics devices."
* LG is a big company and they bought ALL of webOS. This is a company using android and google TV. There must be a plan!
Let's say there's a phone app to control your LG TV - maybe for setting up a video recording from the office - if the TV is webOS, it'll be easier to make the app webOS (OK, enjo will run on many platforms). Cloud connectivity for all your devices is the way things are heading.
Now for a moment of negativity:
* Phone support could be a legal/contractual/PRPRPR $commitment$ - $soon$ $to$ $vanish$
* A range of consumer devices could just be a range of TV's.
* HP was a big company that bought webOS. Fail? No. Epic Fail is the phrase here and why the LG purchase is a surprise, This could mean the software and concepts of webOS are convincing in spite of the mismanagement, but there's no guarantee that LG won't bungle things too.
The questions I hope to get answered soon on this site are:
* Does this include Gram?
* Does this affect open source? I would assume the nature of the licenses make it hard to close it down. Were I an OSS contributor, I would probably have a case if my freely offered contribution was then made proprietary and a company started to make money from my work without enabling the benefits of the open-source model. If gram are an independent growing concern, then that's something, but if they're part of the package or left to go it alone, then it comes down to LG's attitude to open source... (edit: I see now the comment about the apache license - worrying...)
* Have webOS-ports or internals had any contact and and can they throw any more light on the possible future of webOS as a mobile operating system?
* Oh, yeah: Does this include all of Palm's intellectual property? Like the name? Like all the patents? (If HP have the 'smartphone' patent, I can't see them giving it up). LG could rebrand their mobile division - to Palm.
*(edit) Plus enjo of course! Is enjo now seperate? or did LG buy that too?
I just hope that LG's thinking is something like this:
"You know this system has such potential. Why don't we just buy the whole thing?"
"By market share, we're fifth largest in mobile and massively overshadowed by Samsung and Apple. A properly developed webOS could be the edge we need to at least take third place"
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Originally Posted by kevets
