LG Gets A Very Smart New TV; Will A Smart Sign Follow?

December 19, 2013 by Dave Haynes

LG-SmartLG appears set to release what would be a very smart TV at CES next month – making me wonder if the South Korean company has plans to migrate that horsepower to its commercial monitors.

Tech blog The Verge is reporting LG will unveil a Smart TV that runs a 2.2GHz dual-core processor with 1.5GB of RAM, and would use the dormant WebOS mobile operating system first developed by Palm. Remember Palm?

Reports The Verge:

It’s unclear what form webOS will take when it emerges from its three-year hiatus; last February, LG said it was revamping the interface used by Palm and HP for phones and tablets, adding that it will be “a gamechanger.” The operating system is famous for introducing the “cards” multitasking system that’s since been aped by Android, Windows Phone, and iOS, and despite the reported interface revamp there’s still a chance we’ll see cards make their way to LG’s new TV in some form.

At today’s Seoul event, Hong also said LG is going to revive Palm / HP’s Enyo development efforts. Enyo is an open-source JavaScript framework for cross-platform applications, and it appears that LG will ask third parties to develop applications using Enyo.

As to why LG feels the need to develop a brand new smart TV operating system, Hong says that, despite improvements to LG’s TV current operating system, Netcast, many users aren’t fully utilizing the smart functionalities of their televisions. It’s hoped that webOS will offer a better experience and encourage people to use LG’s software over a third-party box like an Apple TV, Roku, or Chromecast. CES takes place at the beginning of January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we’ll be there bringing you news about webOS TVs and more.

Samsung’s Smart Signage platform – commercial panels with smartphone CPUs in them – is a direct offshoot of its consumer Smart TV system. The first generation of these units is not all that powerful, and an LG “smart sign” – if the company extended to commercial from consumer – would have a 2.2GHz dual-core processor versus the current 1GHz dual-core processor in the Samsungs. The 2nd Gen Samsung is expected t be more powerful and have a quad-core processor.

One of the display guys is going to put something out there that – and open up the development capabilities – to make pure all-in-one displays software developers and integrators want, and negate the need for external playback devices.

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