LG is working on a webOS-powered smartwatch

South Korea‘s LG Electronics Inc. will use the WebOS platform as an alternative to Google Inc. ’s Android operating system in a new smartwatch lineup to be launched early next year, a person familiar with the plans said. “We’re going to slowly try to build an (software) ecosystem around areas we can have more control over,” the person said on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. LG, a latecomer to the market, has introduced a few smartwatches powered by Google software, with one of the more recent models, called the G Watch R, running on the Android Wear operating system. Another person familiar with the matter said LG has plans to release another smartwatch that can make calls without having to be linked to a smartphone early this year. But the person wouldn’t say which operating system it would run.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/lg-plans-to-launch-webos-powered-smartwatch-by-early-next-year-1420629714

The world’s favorite abortive mobile operating system, webOS, refuses to go away quietly. After being open-sourced by HP and then sold off to LG, webOS is now apparently returning to mobile devices in the form of a new LG SmartWatch. A developer website hosted by LG teases a software development kit for a webOS SmartWatch, while the familiar Bean Bird from LG’s webOS TVs also shows up, this time supporting a classically styled analog wristwatch. LG is already an active participant in the developing smartwatch market with two Android Wear models: the G Watch that inaugurated Google’s wearable software platform and the G Watch R, which is going on sale later this month. Like fellow Korean manufacturer Samsung — who has adapted the Tizen smartphone OS to its Gear smartwatches — LG may be looking to ensure it has an alternative to the Android platform when constructing its future watches. Given the relative immaturity of Android Wear and competing platforms, there’s plenty of opportunity for webOS to indeed be a compelling new option, provided LG’s SDK is taken up and used to its full potential.