LG shows off a functional Open webOS-based smartwatch with Audi car integration at CES
Exclusive: The hottest smartwatch of CES isn't running Android Wear — it's Open webOS — We bring you the inside look at the most mysterious timepiece of CES 2015
Context & Ripple Effects
At CES 2015 LG put a working smartwatch on its wrist that runs neither of the obvious candidates' software: it is built on Open webOS, and LG used the booth to demo live car integration with Audi. A same-day report had the device slated for retail in early 2016 per the WSJ, so this was positioned as a real product track, not a concept.
What makes the demo analytically interesting is that LG was already hedging: weeks after CES it shipped the round-displayed Android Wear Watch Urbane, and then confirmed the LTE variant of that same watch also skips Android Wear — meaning LG ran a deliberate two-OS experiment across one product family before its 2017 Style and Sport watches arrived running only Android Wear 2.0.
First-order effects
- LG is publicly validating webOS as a wearable platform at exactly the moment its own round-screen Android Wear Urbane headlines its consumer lineup — one vendor, two operating-system pitches, aimed at different buyers.
Second-order effects
- Audi gains a non-Google path for in-car/watch integration at CES, weakening the assumption that connected-car pairing must route through Android; rival watchmakers choosing platforms face a demonstrated alternative, even as Tag Heuer's Intel-powered Android Wear teaser shows the luxury tier leaning Google.
Third-order effects
- If LG's own trajectory holds — webOS watch announced for 2016, but the 2017 flagship watches shipping on Android Wear 2.0 — bespoke OS bets on the wrist collapse into Android Wear consolidation, leaving carriers and carmakers negotiating with Google rather than licensing alternative stacks.
The trend: Smartwatch platforms are consolidating around Android Wear as hardware makers abandon bespoke operating systems for the wrist.