Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said it plans to begin selling its laptops and desktop computers running Google Inc’s Web-based Chrome operating system in Taiwan next week to broaden its product offering for the education and business markets.
The company’s 11.6-inch Chromebook is priced from NT$8,690 (US$286) and the larger 13.3-inch model costs NT$11,900, while prices for its Chromebox desktop PCs start from NT$7,990, Acer said.
The price of Acer’s Chromebox desktop PC is higher than Asustek Computer Inc’s (華碩) similar product, Chromebox CN60, that was also launched yesterday and priced at NT$5,999.
Photo: CNA
PRICE SENSITIVE
Samuel Chang (張世欣), director of Acer Taiwan’s marketing division, told a press briefing that Acer’s Chromebooks are designed to fit the demands of price-sensitive consumers, people who need a second computer, and the education and business sectors.
Last year, the company ranked as the world’s second-largest maker of Chromebook laptops, with a 21.4 percent market share, as the Taiwanese PC vendor offered low-cost, high-performance products in the category, research firm Gartner Inc said.
New data from market intelligence firm ABI Research shows that worldwide shipments of Chromebooks are forecast to reach 4.1 million units this year, almost double the 2.1 million units shipped last year.
TOP VENDORS
The top three Chromebook vendors — Acer, Samsung Electronics Co of South Korea and Hewlett-Packard Co of the US — accounted for 74 percent of shipments during the first half of the year, ABI Research said.
However, ABI Research said that the devices have had a slow start because of their “questionable need.”
Vertical markets such as elementary education have been a driving force behind Chromebooks, it said.
In emerging markets, especially in the Asia-Pacific region and eastern Europe, business-purchasing entities account for 75 percent of Chromebook sales, it said.
It forecast that North America would account for 78 percent of the Chromebook market this year, while other regions, especially the Asia-Pacific region and western Europe, are expected to grow in market share by 2019.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS