While the ongoing saga that has become LG and WebOS is not strictly Android-related, we’re pretty sure that many of our readers and most Android fans out there will remember WebOS fondly. If not for the fire sale that led to cheap HP TouchPads the world over but, because WebOS decided to do something different at a time when everyone else was following Apple and the iPhone. In fact, Android 4.0 and subsequent versions owe a lot to WebOS. However, that’s more to do with the fact that Matias Duarte – the man behind WebOS’ look and feel – has been in charge of the way Android looks and feels since Android 3.0 Honeycomb.
I think we were all pretty sad to see HP pull the plug on WebOS like that, after a rocky start for the new OS and Palm, it was pretty much the nail in the coffin for WebOS. Sure, it lived on as an Open Source project for some time but, it was clear that HP was only looking for a quick entrance into the mobile market and if WebOS couldn’t do that, then they weren’t interested any more. Enter LG, whom in 2013 decided to buy up what was left of WebOS to create a completely new Smart TV experience for their upcoming 2014 line of TVs. We now know that LG is going to be showing off these new TVs at CES 2014 but, in the latest leak, we now have some idea of what it’s going to look like.
Thanks to another leak from the ever hardworking @evleaks we can see that LG has definitely touched up WebOS and is going for something completely different from others in the same field. With a much more modern look and feel, LG already looks to have distanced themselves from Samsung, their main competitor in the Smart TV realm, and we’re pretty sure that this new look will be turning more than a few heads at this year’s CES, which kicks off in less than a week or so. What do you think to LG’s new direction in Smart TVs? Should they have just leveraged Android or is using WebOS and going a different route a good idea for them?