The cited sources give this account: In 2009, Palm introduced WebOS, which allowed users to multitask by running multiple apps at once and featured a swipe gesture for switching between apps. This innovation (ad) was not adopted by Apple until much later, with the iPhone X in 2017 finally including the swipe-up gesture for multitasking.
Apple's (ad) response to Palm's innovations was reportedly rattled, with Tim Cook threatening a patent fight in public. However, it took Apple until 2013 to introduce a card-style app switcher, and it was not until the iPhone X in 2017 that the swipe-up gesture for multitasking was fully integrated.
Palm's (ad) WebOS was well ahead of its time, but the company was almost 10 years early. By 2009, the gesture that billions of people now use daily was already a core feature of WebOS, but Palm was sold off and forgotten shortly after its introduction.
Tim Cook, Apple's (ad) chief operating officer, threatened a patent fight in public with Palm, a company that Silicon Valley had already written off. This shows how rattled Apple was by Palm's innovations, even though it took Apple until 2017 to fully integrate the swipe-up gesture for multitasking.
WebOS never actually (ad) died. There's a good chance that you're running it right now on the smart TV in your living room and you'd have no idea where it came from. This is the story of a phone company that had the better idea, scared Apple, traded a few punches with Steve Jobs, and still lost everything.
Apple's (ad) iPhone launched in 2007 and couldn't multitask, it could only do one thing at a time. Other phones could multitask, but Palm's WebOS was well ahead of its time, allowing users to run multiple apps at once and featuring a swipe gesture for switching between apps.
By 2009, Palm's (ad) WebOS was running on a phone called the Palm Prix, which featured a card-style app switcher and a swipe gesture for switching between apps. However, the hardware was not ready for what the software wanted it to do, and the app catalog was limited, which ultimately led to the company's downfall.
In 2013, LG quietly (ad) brought what was left of WebOS to fix its smart TVs, which at the time were miserable. Matthias Duarte's card interface was built for a phone that nobody bought, but turned out to be a great bedrock for a screen you can glance at from a couch. Today, LG's WebOS ranks top among the smart TV platforms.