webOS - on the rise again?

Since LG presented their (cool!) new Smart-TVs powered by webOS, my beloved operating system is trending again. Reviews were positive in general and one must admin that the system looks very promising. In hope to fuel webOS rising again (at least in social media), I have played around with twitter bots on my MSI Windbox running archlinux and created a little bot retweeting things tagged with the webos-hashtag. Due to a bad coincidence of a similar term existing in (Mexican?) slang, there also might be tweets in that timeline not quite covering technology, but hopefully, those are not taking over…

is TV really what webOS-fans want?

Speaking honestly, I am really glad that webOS is not dead yet, so that enyo and openwebOS will live on and receive support by LG. I really could buy a new TV this year and if there will be an affordable device in LG’s lineup be sure it will be one of those. But this won’t bring back the webOS I fell in love with in 2009 - the system bringing a perfect ui for mobiles and tablets. I cannot see how LG can bring webOS to those kind of device without doing heavy investments in creating a second ui - the one shown at CES (in my personal opinion) does not match the user experience needed for tablets or smartphones.

Sadly, this is exactly what I want: new phones, new tablets, updated os. I feel this is what most of the webOS faithful are waiting for.

new hardware - unlikely?

Bringing webOS devices does not appear to be in focus of LG’s product strategy - being a company creating Android-driven devices for quite a while. It would appear more likely that there will be special Android-apps tailored to team up with webOS tvs for remote control, streaming or other things one might think of.

It might depend on how Panasonic and FirefoxOS can hit the market or if Samsung can make an impact with either Android or Tizen on mobile and tv. If those combinations can claim a reasonable market share and attract enough app developers, LG might consider giving webOS a new chance for succeeding in the mobile space. It will also depend on if press and all those tech blogs out there are willing to give new contenders a fair chance when comparing them to Android or iOS - a lot of articles in the past read as if they were written by fanatic fanboys of one of those systems.

Until LG gives an official statement if they will or will not bring webOS back to where it belongs, I can only hold on to my Touchpad and hope for the best…