Asus Is Planning To Release its First Chromebook in Q4 2013

Asus Is Planning To Release its First Chromebook in Q4 2013

This rumor has been floating around for a while now, but if the latest report from Digitimes is to be believed, ASUS, the Taiwanese OEM will produce a Chromebook and bring it to market sometime by the end of the year in hopes that high demand in the IT market will boost notebook shipments. In a new report citing unnamed sources, Tom’s Hardware claims the company is hoping to stake out a slice of the growing education market.

ASUS recently reduced its notebook shipment forecast for 2013 down to 17-19 million units, from an original high of 24 million. Since ASUS already has a good working relationship with Google via the Nexus program, producing a Chromebook is the obvious next step, especially since Chromebook sales have been steadily increasing as PC sales decline. And ASUS is, after all, first and foremost a PC manufacturer.

In fact, the company is also expected to release a refreshed VivoBook running Windows 8.1 later this year. According to a leaked press shot from Swedish site SweClockers, Asus will release a 10.1-inch VivoBook called the X102BA. The X102BA will offer a 1GHz dual-core A4-1200 AMD processor, and a Radeon HD 8180 225MHz GPU. SweClockers says the hard drive will be available starting at 320GB upgradeable to 500GB, either 2 or 4GB of RAM, and a 10.1-inch 1366 x 768-pixel display.

Connectivity-wise, VivoBook offers two USB 2.0, one USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, card reader (SD), Ethernet and a 3.5mm headset connector. For wireless is 802.11 b / g / n and Bluetooth 4.0. The battery is specified to be 22 or 33 watt hours depending on configuration and should be good for five hours of operating time.

SweClockers says the notebook will run $507 in the U.S., but that it’ll likely be less once it goes on sale. When you consider the below $500 price point, you can’t truly expect impressive display.

Asus will unveil the device at the Windows 8.1 event scheduled for September 15, according to some reports.

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Write by: RC - Tuesday, August 20, 2013