LG acquires webOS from HP to use in smart TVs, report says

Palm fans will be happy to learn that webOS is alive and kicking and will reportedly be the operating system used by LG in future smart TVs.

According to a CNET report Monday, LG has agreed to purchase the well-regarded but now rarely used operating system from Hewlett-Packard.

WebOS was originally developed by the now-defunct Palm for use in its smartphones. When Palm was purchased by HP, the company said it would use webOS for its mobile efforts, but essentially HP released only the TouchPad tablet, which it quickly stopped selling.

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Since then, we haven’t seen much of webOS, but the new deal will transfer webOS’ source code, engineers, documents, websites, licenses and patents from HP to LG. And according to CNET, the South Korean tech company will use the operating system for smart TVs.

WebOS “creates a new path for LG to offer an intuitive user experience and Internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices,” Skott Ahn, LG’s president and chief technology officer, told CNET.

As for existing users of Palm products, LG said it will continue to support them, according to the report.

LG and HP could not be reached for comment.

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