LG to give unloved webOS new lease of life

Korean vendor to use mobile operating system in its smart TV technology following deal with HP

HP's unloved mobile operating system, webOS, has found a new home in the form of LG.

The Korean consumer electronics giant yesterday announced an agreement to snap up the source code, engineering talent and related websites associated with webOS to support its next-generation smart TV technology.

HP inherited the operating system through its $1.2bn (£790m) acquisition of Palm in 2010 but barely a year later announced it was pulling the plug on all webOS devices, including the TouchPad and webOS phones. Under the deal, HP will hang on to Palm's cloud computing assets.

Although LG gave no indication it would use webOS for smartphones, the agreement "paves the way for continued innovation on the webOS platform", according to the duo.

It also hands Seoul-based LG two more R&D locations in Sunnyvale and San Francisco, which chief executive Skott Ahn said demonstrates the vendor's investment in Silicon Valley.

"It creates a new path for LG to offer an intuitive user experience and internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices," Ahn said.

"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."

HP chief operating officer Bill Veghte said the deal would help "accelerate the delivery of [webOS] from the community", while enabling HP to accelerate its cloud efforts.

"In particular, with the cloud assets that will remain with HP, we will focus on delivering innovative solutions that will enable our enterprise customers to mobilise their workforce," he said.