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Digitimes Research: Sub-US$300 15.6-inch Chromebooks to fuel notebook competition in 1Q15

Joanne Chien, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei

In addition to Acer, which is set to launch a Broadwell-U-based 15.6-inch Chromebook in March 2015, Dell is planning to launch a 15.6-inch Chromebook with similar specifications in the first half of 2015 and both devices may be priced under US$300, according to Digitimes Research's latest findings from the upstream supply chain.

Digitimes Research believes if the two vendors have adopted the Broadwell-U processor that has performance comparable to Intel's Core i3 CPU, the two Chromebooks will be very competitive in terms of price/performance ratio.

With the exception of Lenovo's 11.6-inch touchscreen-ready N20P, which is above US$300, Chromebooks sized from 11.6- to 14-inch are all under US$300. The US$249-299 is the most commonly seen price range for these devices.

For the new 15.6-inch Chromebook, Google has set the target price at less than US$300, and devices with the processor of Core i3 performance can be priced as high as US299, about US$50 cheaper than similar-specification models using a Wintel combination.

Although Microsoft is planning to start a new Windows 8.1 with Bing project in February 2015 to push US$249 notebooks, the project has provided Google an opportunity to expand its presence in the notebook market with its inexpensive products as Microsoft's new project will not cover 15-inch products.

Content from this article was part of a complete Digitimes Research Chinese-language report that has not yet been translated into English. If you are interested in an English version of the report or wish to receive more information about the report, click here to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Digitimes Research also provides quarterly tracking services for market sectors such as China Smartphone, China Smartphone AP, Taiwan ICT and Taiwan FPD. Click here for more information about Digitimes Research Tracking services.