LG, Philips and Sharp to build interoperable TV apps

LG Electronics has tied up with Dutch giant Philips and Japan’s Sharp to co-operate on the production of interoperable applications for internet-powered televisions. The glaring omission in this consortium are the two TV leaders, Sony and Samsung.

The three TV vendors will jointly create software development kits, which will be distributed to third-party developers to write TV applications, said LG.

It is the first such collaboration in the smart TV sector, LG said, adding the three would complete software development kits by the end of this year.

They will use different operating systems for their smart TVs, but the applications will become interchangeable once they adopt a common technology standard for building applications, LG said.

It said the tie-up would have a substantial impact on TV makers, app developers and users.

LG has seen flagging sales of mobile phones and televisions this year because it failed quickly to roll out smartphones to rival Apple’s market-leading iPhone and Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S.

– AFP