Two Chromebooks by Asus coming in 2014

A news report published yesterday by Focus Taiwan claims that Asus will step into a new field and release two Chromebooks during the first quarter of 2014 as "an answer to rising demand for the Web-based devices." Since Asus is one of the notorious notebook/tablet vendors on today's market this comes as a natural move, especially since it already has a few Android tablets and convertibles in its portfolio.

According to Asus CEO Jerry Shen, "Chromebook sales in the United States are estimated to hit 3 million units this year and grow to 4 million in 2014" and Asus has plans to release a model priced at $249 able to achieve "reasonable profit margins" and a low-priced model expected to start at $199.

Shen predicted that Internet-reliant computers with very low prices "could account for some 10 percent of total laptop shipments in the U.S. next year, with 60-70 percent of Chromebooks going to the education market".

Right now it seems there is plenty of room for growth in this market since Chromebooks sold over 170,000 units this year but this only accounted for 3.3 percent of the overall back-to-school computer sales.

Since Google launched first Chromebooks in 2011 they did not manage to become mainstream in most parts of the world but overall these Chrome OS-based portables are doing well. For example, Samsung's 11.6-inch Chromebook launched in 2012 is Amazon's best selling laptop and has a rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars after 506 customer reviews.