LG Electronics has been extremely aggressive and successful in its plans to grow its webOS TV operating system, licensing that platform to hundreds of third-party TV makers, and now it’s looking to expand to include monitor manufacturers too.
The company uses the official webOS platform for its own LCD and OLED TVs, and a modified version known as webOS Hub that’s licensed to other brands, including Blaupunkt, Konka and Seiki. The webOS Hub operating system is now also being customized for PC monitors and it includes features such as Apple Home and AirPlay support, FlatPanels HD reported.
LG Korea, a subsidiary of LG Electronics, announced it will license webOS Hub to third-party monitor brands earlier this month. The platform will be used in “smart monitors”, which offer TV-like functionality. Samsung Electronics’ Tizen OS is also used to power many smart monitors.
"The new webOS Hub 2.0S presents greater hardware adaptability, broadening its availability beyond smart TVs, and is able to provide more options for third-party brands to offer a customizable user experience,” the company said.
LG said webOS Hub 2.0S offers a very similar experience to webOS 23 for TVs, with built-in streaming applications such as Netflix, YouTube and Spotify. However, the user interface is quite different and it lacks many of the capabilities of the full webOS platform available in LG’s own products.
Smart monitors that integrate the platform will also be compatible with Apple Home and AirPlay 2, so iPhone and iPad users will be able to wirelessly connect to it and access movies, music and photos from their devices on them.
In addition, webOS Hub supports USB cameras, remote PCs and video calls.
LG said recently that more than 300 brands globally are now licensing the webOS platform, as part of its push to expand the software into a multi-device platform and monetize it by pushing ads to users.
