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Asus Chrome OS Netbook rumored at sub-$250 debut |
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As time draws near for the launch of Chrome OS based net books, rumors about its possible pricing have started to appear on the horizon. Taiwan-based technology publication DigiTimes, citing unnamed sources, has said that computer manufacturer Asus would come out with a netbook in the price band of $200-250 in a bid to avoid direct competition from tablet PCs. Most tablet PCs are priced between $299-499. To market observers, the appeal of the Chrome OS brower, which runs everything in the cloud, has waned with the appearance of portable and hugely popular tablet PCs, a category created and ruled by Apple's iPad. Critics argue the tablet PCs have significantly eaten into netbook sales - research firm Canalys has gone as far as to predicting a significant impact of five netbooks or notebooks not shipping for every 10 tablet PCs sold across both the consumer and enterprise segments. The firm anticipates notebooks to grow nearly 8% in 2011 despite the impact of tablet PCs mainly on account of the ongoing Windows 7 refresh and improving business confidence in the commercial sector, while it foresees net books declining by about 13% to 34 million units. DigiTimes said Asus could probably go with Google's Android or Chrome OS to attain the price point for the product which is meant largely for productivity and Internet related tasks. The report also said observers hold a largely conservative view about the prospects of the Netbook, and therefore consequentially the fortunes of Google's Chrome OS, on account of the huge popularity of tablet PCs such as the iPad as well as others that run Google's Android operating system. The report also said that Asus would also bring to market mid-range and high-end models priced at around $499, which would in fact compete with tablet PCs. Other reports in the media speculated that a Netbook at that price point would most likely sport a single core Atom processor, while pegging the tentative market launch at around June 2011 in line with Google's earlier announced availability of the platform in mid-2011. Google recently concluded its pilot program for the Chome OS where it was shipping its CR-48 Chrome OS based netbook for user evaluations. |
LISTS AND RESEARCH
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Global Software Top 100 - Edition 2011
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Software industry trends (2011)
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CRM companies: a short list
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- Top software companies in the US (2010)
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- U.S. software industry trends (2010)
- A research publication discussing the trends and the key players in the software industry in the United States. Posted 15 December 2010.
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