Acer unveils world's first Nvidia-based Chromebook
CNA
2014-08-13
The Acer Chromebook 13. (Photo/CNA)
Taiwanese PC maker Acer unveiled on Tuesday the world's first Chromebook laptop powered by a mobile chipset from Nvidia to expand its line of Web-centric computers.
The Acer Chromebook 13 is equipped with a 13.3-inch display and a Nivida Tegra K1 quad-core processor, which incorporates an advanced graphics processing unit that can deal with "rich and detailed graphics," the company said in a press release.
The Tegra K1, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January this year, is the industry's first mobile chip with 192 graphics cores.
The new laptop, which runs on Google's Chrome operating system, features a streamlined design, with the unit measuring only 17.9 millimeters thick and weighing only 1.5 kilograms.
The Acer Chromebook 13 will start shipping later this month and will be available in European, North American and Asia-Pacific markets with a starting price of US$279.
Though Chromebooks only represented about 10% of Acer's notebook sales in the first half of the year, Acer CEO and president Jason Chen said in late July that the company's shipments of the niche notebooks had increased 70% year-on-year so far this year.
Acer said the launch of the Chromebook 13 will enhance its dominant position in the category, as the company had a leading position in the United States Chromebook market and the second biggest market share globally in the first quarter of 2014.
According to data from market research firm NPD Group, Acer had a 46.7% share of the US Chromebook market in the first three months of 2014.
Based on Google's popular web browser, the Chrome operating system offers an always-connected experience that relies heavily on information and processing power in the cloud.
The first Chromebook models were released in 2011 by South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Acer.
According to estimates by research firm Gartner, global shipments of Chromebooks will increase 79% year-on-year to 5.2 million devices in 2014, and will nearly triple to 14.4 million devices by 2017.
As for Nvidia, the partnership with Acer marks the chipset maker's first step into the fast-growing Chromebook market, at a time when most chip maker are looking for new sources of sales growth amid a sluggish PC industry.
