Microsoft to push 2 inexpensive notebooks Chromebook

 Microsoft to push 2 inexpensive notebooks Chromebook

Digitimes Research: Microsoft to push two cheap notebooks in mid-2015 to counter Chromebook penetration

Although the launches of cheap Chromebooks using Rockchip's solutions were postponed recently, Google is not giving up designs to release such products in 2015, forcing Microsoft, which has been closely monitoring Chromebook development, to release new cheap projects targeting the schooling and consumer markets. The projects are 11.6-inch clamshell-type notebooks priced at US$149-179 and set for release in mid-2015, at the earliest.

Both notebooks adopt Intel's Bay Trail-T CR (BTCR) processors, while the for educational purposes will be manufactured with Elitegroup Computer Systems' (ECS) help and will be sold chiefly through the schooling channel that Intel and ECS built for their Classmate PC products. The finish cost for the product is estimated to be US$179.

Meanwhile, the for the consumer market will be developed and manufactured by China-based three Nod and sold by brand vendors. The finish cost for the model will start from US$149.

Digitimes Research believes Google is looking to adopt Rockchip's solutions in its Chromebooks to further reduce hardware costs in order to expand its presence in emerging markets that are more price-oriented. The Chromebooks are expected to be priced beginning US$179.

Although Chromebooks only have limited presence in non-US markets, Microsoft, is treating Chromebooks as a major threat, and is taking aggressive action to suppress the devices' growth to prevent Chromebooks from penetrating in to emerging markets like they did in the US.

In addition to the schooling market, Digitimes Research believes the Chromebooks are partly designed to be promoted to the consumer sector of emerging markets since Google has planned different sizes, 11.6-, 13.3- and 15.6-inch, which is an unusual design for an schooling product, and Google's online schooling solutions for non-US markets have not yet reached a level similar to the for the US market.

In addition to the activation of the cheap 11.6-inch laptop projects, Microsoft may expand the project to cover models with larger sizes as Google's cheap Chromebook lineup covers sizes as large as 15.6-inch.