It has been a while since it was revealed that LG smart TV OS, webOS, would be licensed to other brands to expand its reach. The development is finally here because the South Korean tech company has announced that it will be partnering with 200 brands to make this a reality.
This should be good news for a lot of people for various reasons. One of them is that they will be able to enjoy content on their TVs while taking advantage of all the good features that are packed in webOS. It also means that customers will be able to purchase TVs at a cheaper cost, bearing in mind that leading brands, including LG, tend to price their sets at a budget higher than the competition. Lastly, this means that smaller brands will be able to make a name for themselves because it becomes increasingly hard to get any form of market penetration in a world where other brands have the largest part of the market share.
Some of the partners that will be taking part in this collaboration include names you have probably never heard of such as Seiko, Eko, Stream System, Konka, and Aiwa. Auto-maker Hyundai is also part of this partnership.
One thing should be remembered though: the webOS Hub that will be shipped in partner TVs will not be the same as that found in LG sets. Rather, it is a custom version that has been designed for third-party brands, which means that there are chances that some of its original features will not feature in the new sets. One of them is the impressive LG Magic Remote, which has been lauded for its implementation. We still hope that it will be copied by other brands in the long run because it is that good.
President of the LG Home Entertainment Company Park Hyoung-sei said, “Over 120 million third-party devices in 150 countries are now powered by webOS – a number that is set to grow with the availability of the new and improved webOS Hub. We are committed to refining and expanding our webOS Hub ecosystem, which continues to introduce more and more consumers to the unparalleled user experience of LG WebOS.”
LG is not the only company doing this: Tizen OS, which ships with Samsung TVs, will also be expanded to other brands. Some of the partners in this venture will include Linsar, Sunny, and Vispera – and as said, some of these brands are not as big in this part of the world.
There are many TV platforms out there, including Google and Android TV, Apple TV, VIIDA, and Roku. However, in terms of numbers, Tizen tops the charts, followed by webOS.
