Acer Inc’s (宏碁) Chromebook, an always-connected laptop running on Google Inc’s Chrome operating system (OS), remains competitive on Amazon.com Inc’s bestseller list for laptop computers six weeks after going on sale last month.
As of yesterday morning, the 11.6-inch Acer Chromebook with Wi-Fi connectivity was ranked seventh on the list, extending its stay in the top 100 to 42 days.
The 12.1-inch Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi Chromebook was ranked 15th, while the 3G Chromebook version in the same series was 12th.
Ahead of the Acer model were two Toshiba regular notebooks, two Apple MacBook Pros, another Acer laptop and a Hewlett-Packard ProBook.
“They are what netbooks have been all along,” Richard Shim, senior analyst at consulting firm DisplaySearch, said on the company’s blog.
“Now the mini-note category is shrinking as brands move away from the modest margins of mini-notes to tablet PCs, while the need and opportunity for devices specialized for Internet access remains,” he added.
Consumers looking for an instant-on device with a long battery life and sleek design, or just for connecting to the Web for e-mail and accessing digital media will find Chromebooks of interest, Shim said.
On May 31, Google announced at Computex Taipei 2011, the world’s second-largest computer trade show, that it would launch two Chrome-based laptops, or Chromebooks, in cooperation with Taiwan-based Acer and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, to capitalize on the growing popularity of its Chrome browser.
Google says Chrome OS, which resembles the look and feel of its Chrome browser, provides users with faster and easier access to applications like e-mail and spreadsheets on the Web, compared with storing them on PCs.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
DOLLAR SIGNS: The central bank rejected claims that the NT dollar had appreciated 10 percentage points more than the yen or the won against the greenback The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell for a sixth day to its weakest level in three months, driven by equity-related outflows and reactions to an economics official’s exchange rate remarks. The NT dollar slid NT$0.197, or 0.65 percent, to close at NT$30.505 per US dollar, central bank data showed. The local currency has depreciated 1.97 percent so far this month, ranking as the weakest performer among Asian currencies. Dealers attributed the retreat to foreign investors wiring capital gains and dividends abroad after taking profit in local shares. They also pointed to reports that Washington might consider taking equity stakes in chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
RSS