LG could take on Android Wear with new ‘webOS SmartWatch’
An image taken from LG’s webOS SmartWatch page.
LG may have been one of Android Wear’s first supporters with its G Watch and upcoming G Watch R, but that doesn’t mean it has no plans to compete against it. The South Korean firm’s website confirms that it is developing a second smartwatch line powered by the webOS platform it acquired from HP back in 2013.
Although LG hasn’t officially announced its new “webOS SmartWatch” plans, a website promoting a software development kit for developers — first spotted by The Verge — makes them perfectly clear. What it doesn’t reveal, however, is a release date — but one page states the platform is “coming soon.”
With Android Wear still in its infancy — and far from perfect just yet — there’s certainly a chance for competing platforms to mount a tough fight against it. That’s exactly what Samsung is trying to do with its own Tizen-powered wearables like the Gear S, and of course, Apple will be throwing its own hat into the ring with Apple Watch early next year.
Graphic: LG
LG has been determined not to let webOS die since it acquired it. It has already made the platform available on its latest Smart TVs, and tailoring it to a watch seems to make sense — providing it can do a decent job. The company has proven with the G Watch R that it can produce terrific hardware, so it’s already halfway there.
However, LG pulled its SmartWatch pages shortly after they started making news and warned The Verge, “many initiatives going on at LG at any given moment. The majority of them never see the light of day.” This one could suffer the same fate, then, so don’t get too excited just yet.
