What They Say
The Korea Economic Daily (KED) reported that LG is really trying to boost the number of brands using its WebOS TVs in their sets, with the article suggesting that the target is a ten-fold boost in use.
“Our medium to long-term strategy is focused on transforming into a software company. We can’t survive by selling devices only,”
a senior LG Electronics executive told The KED. The paper points out that LG bought a 56.6% stake last year in Alphonso Inc, a TV data analysis firm that has become LG Ads.
What We Think
I can see why LG would want to develop more into services and software, but I wonder how successful that can be? If I was another TV brand, I would worry about getting too dependent on another TV brand. I wouldn’t want to identify that I had the Web OS platform, unless I was a very small ‘local hero’ brand. If I then adopted a ‘white box’ solution, there are a number available and the Xperi/Vewd solution would be one to compare with. If I wanted the kudos of a branded platform, I would probably look at Roku if it was active in my part of the world.
However, it’s hard to imagine how LG can get the kind of scale of growth it is talking about. It might be able to get a number of smaller players, but to achieve a ten-fold boost, it would have to sign up some big brands and I can’t see that happening. (BR)
Image:KED
