What Is Expected from webOS-Qt Partnership
September 03, 2019
In June 2019, LG Electronics (LG) concluded a strategic partnership with The Qt Company (Qt) to strengthen the webOS ecosystem. This partnership is expected to lead the enhancement of user experience and functional features of webOS as well as expand the playground to more devices and industries.
To get some insights into what is expected from the partnership, the editor had a conversation with Jaeduck Oh, a webOS expert.
Q: What brought about this partnership and what will it change?
A: Qt is a native development framework for an embedded environment, in particular, specialized in GUI development, and webOS has been supporting Qt for a long time. One of the best practices is webOS TV. (Watch the full video explaining how webOS benefits from Qt.)
Qt powered webOS TV
Based on this long-term amicable relationship, Qt and LG decided to enter a close partnership that will help both win the battle in the future device market. Through this partnership, webOS was announced as a reference platform of Qt.
Q: You mentioned that webOS is the reference platform of Qt. What does that practically mean?
A: As soon as a new version of Qt is released, all its new features and functions will be available on webOS. Developers can employ the latest Qt without delay.
Q: Sounds great. What else do you expect from the partnership?
A: It will help Qt and webOS make up their weaknesses by contributing components as open source to each other. For example, webOS components that Qt lacks or can take advantage of can be contributed to Qt as open source and vice versa. This will make both platforms more powerful and competitive. We expect it will eventually strengthen and widen the ecosystem of webOS.
Q: Are there any follow-up events or activities planned?
A: Two rounds of Qt World Summit 2019 are to be held in November in Berlin, Germany and Tokyo, Japan, and webOS will join the events as a gold sponsor. The webOS team will give a keynote speech and hold several technical sessions addressing the future of webOS and its collaboration with Qt. There also will be an exhibition booth showing how webOS has been and will be evolving especially in the automotive industry.
According to Mr. Oh, there are more plans for promotion under discussion between the two parties and he would tell us when they are ready to be announced.
Check out for more webOS news or upcoming events on webOS Linkedin page or @webos_ose on twitter.