LG Electronics ( LG) announced steps to create a media and entertainment platform, a business transformation that will enrich customers’ lives by delivering relevant services and a collection of curated content across products including LG OLED and LG QNED TVs. This happened at the webOS Partner Summit 2023 event , held at LG Sciencepark in Seoul, South Korea, with the participation of manufacturers, suppliers, content developers and industry representatives from more than 30 countries.
The first event of its kind, webOS Partner Summit 2023 provided a platform for LG to share its new vision and benefits of its ever-evolving and expanding webOS Smart TV platform ecosystem with its trusted global partners. Since its launch on LG Smart TVs in 2014, webOS has become one of the most widely used Smart TV platforms in the world. In addition to LG’s 200 million TVs worldwide, webOS now supports multiple third-party TV brands across multiple markets. Going forward, LG plans to roll out webOS to more third-party TV manufacturers and expand the platform to other product categories. Within three years, LG Electronics expects to have more than 300 million devices running webOS.
To bring the convenience and expansive webOS ecosystem to a wider customer base, LG Electronics has already expanded its platform to a number of categories, including projectors, professional displays and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Moreover, the number of third-party brand partners that use webOS Hub, webOS’ solution for third-party brands, has grown significantly, from twenty just two years ago to more than three hundred today. During this time, webOS Hub has received significant updates: the variety of content offered has expanded, including cloud games and OTT services, as well as new features that increase the level of convenience. In addition, some of LG’s TV brand partners have now introduced their own OLED TVs powered by webOS Hub.
The webOS Smart TV platform is constantly evolving, providing updates that add support for new services and continually improving the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). To ensure that as many users as possible can enjoy the new version of webOS on their home TVs, LG is offering support for TV operating system updates, including for older TV models.
LG Electronics intends to invest a significant amount of 1 trillion won in its webOS business over the next five years to provide more content and services to suit consumers’ diverse lifestyles and preferences. LG believes that by increasing its competitiveness in content and services, it will further improve the webOS user experience.
LG Electronics is also advancing innovation in AI-powered search and recommendation. The company plans to include a voice user interface (VUI) feature in partner companies’ applications, which will allow webOS users to easily control and navigate third-party content services using voice, as well as provide a fast and seamless content search.
LG Electronics is actively investing in the development of its Smart TV platform, collaborating with academic institutions in South Korea to nurture the next generation of software talent, and intensifying efforts to attract top-notch software talent around the world.\
“LG Electronics is poised to transform itself into a media and entertainment platform company that will provide content and services that improve the lives of its customers ,” said Park Hyun-sei , president of LG Home Entertainment Company , speaking at webOS Partner Summit 2023. “ This transformation ” would not have been possible without LG Electronics’ decade of leadership in LG OLED TVs and the technological innovation of the webOS Smart TV platform . “
