Just in time for the holidays, Google has announced a price drop for both the Samsung Series 5 and Acer AC700 Chromebooks. Both are now being dropped to $299 from $349, which still seems a little steep for what you’re getting. So why the price drop? Most likely Google isn’t seeing the type of sales they were looking for with Chrome OS and hope sales will help boost that.
Shouldn’t Google be going a little lower in price with these?
It’s no secret that Microsoft makes more money off Android then their own quickly failing phone business, thanks to licensing agreements with HTC which see a royalty paid to the company for every Android HTC device sold. A new licensing agreement with ViewSonic will see Microsoft again collecting royalties off ViewSonic’s smartphone and tablet devices running Android or Chrome.
Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing Horacio Gutierrez had the following to say about the agreement:
“We are pleased that ViewSonic is taking advantage of our industrywide licensing program established to help companies address Android’s IP issues,” he continued, “this agreement is an example of how industry leaders can reach commercially reasonable arrangements that address intellectual property.”
This morning, Acer announced the Iconia A100 Tab A100. The 7″ Android 3.2 tablet is the first to run Honeycomb at that size. The screen is a Galazy Tab-like 1024×600 16:10 TFT with a 75-degree viewing angle. The body is a bit on the beefy side for a 7-incher at .5-inches thick and .92lbs.
All of that heft doesn’t get you as much battery life as you might expect. The battery is a very cellphone-like 1520mA and is rated for around 5 hours of web surfing and slightly less for HD Video. It also runs Adobe Flash 10.3 which will tax its speedy 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor.
On the backside is a big 5MP shooter with Flash. The front side has a 2MP video conferencing camera as well.
It also has a home button which seems to indicate that Acer didn’t get Andy Rubin’s message about “no buttons”. That’s OK, some people like buttons.
The biggie here is the price. With a retail target of $329, this product will likely be aimed at consumers who don’t feel comfortable spending $500 and up for a tablet. As with the Iconia A500 tablet before it, that price will likely get discounted so we’ll be looking at a mid range Honeycomb product in the mid $200 range.
This will compete well with Barnes and Noble’s Nook, the HTC Flyer and the original Samsung Galaxy Tab. It also appears to be aimed at moms who can throw this in a purse and hold it in one hand and while on the go.
As you know, Acer lost its CEO Gianfranco Lanci who resigned in March for his inability to produce an answer to Apple’s iPad which ushered in the post-PC era. At the same time, Samsung’s notebook shipments are declining due to weak netbook sales affected by, you guessed right, the iPad and tablets in general. It doesn’t come as a surprise then that Lanci is rumored to be joining Samsung Electronics in August to “help the Korea-based electronics giant expand its notebook business, especially in Europe”, per DigiTimes’article:
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Dell and Samsung have both contacted Lanci, aiming to leverage the former Acer CEO’s expertise in the management of channel sales in Europe. Acer, Asustek Computer as well as Hewlett-Packard (HP) which all count Europe as one of their leading markets, reportedly have been on high alert on Lanci’s move, said the sources.
One possible issue: Lanci signed a one-year non-compete agreement with Acer when he resigned on March 31. This, the sources assert, should be settled easily between Samsung and Acer should Lanci take the job. Samsung is the world’s seventh-largest notebook vendor by units and sixth in Europe. They shipped 9.9 million notebooks in 2010, IDC estimated, and are one of the premium partners authorized to manufacture Chromebooks. On top of inexpensive netbooks and notebooks, Samsung is also increasingly rivaling Apple with flagship offerings such as the Series 9, an ultrathin notebook The Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg likened to the MacBook Air. That machine is also on T3’s Gadget Awards 2011 shortlist in Computer of the Year and T3 Design Award categories. In addition to Samsung, Acer stumbled, too… Expand Expanding Close
The next Chromebook to run Google’s Chrome OS is the Acer AC700, which will hit shelves this month (4 days left!) for $350 — Acer announced today. The 3G version of this device will not be available when the Wi-Fi version launches, but it will be on its way later this summer. The AC700 is packing Chrome OS, an Atom N570 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, two USB 2.0 ports, 6-cell battery, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader.
This device will certainly be a great competitor to the Samsung Series 5, a device that we have already unboxed. Stay tuned with NewGeekGuide for a review of the AC700 when it’s available. Press release after the break. Expand Expanding Close
After smartphones, tablets and cross-over gadgets such as Lenovo’s IdeaPad U1 with detachable display, Android and ARM technology could make its way inside notebooks by year’s end.
The vast majority of all-in-one chips powering today’s tablets and smartphones incorporate CPU designs from UK-based ARM Holdings, a fables semiconductor intellectual property firm headquartered in Cambridge, England. For example, chips from the likes of Qualcomm, Nvidia and even Apple all incorporate CPU designs licensed from ARM Holdings. Now that power-savvy mobile chips with two and four processing cores and flashy graphics are a reality, notebook vendors are taking notice.
We’ve previously heard whispers that Apple has a MacBook prototype designed around the iPad 2’s A5 chip which contains two ARM-designed processing cores. Not content with being left behind, first-tier device makers such as Samsung, Toshiba, Acer and Asustek plan on bringing ARM-powered notebooks to the market by the end of this year. From DigiTimes:
The sources pointed out that ARM-based systems using Android were already launched under the smartbook name two years ago with Toshiba and Lenovo both launching products in the retail channel. However, due to weaker than expected demand, the related products were soon phased out of the market. Asustek has already made plans to launch a 13-inch ARM-based notebook adopting Nvidia’s processor with Android. The sources pointed out that there are already several brand vendors reportedly set to launch ARM-based notebooks with prices lower than US$299 to compete for market share and the vendors’ processor choices include Nvidia’s Tegra, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and processors from Texas Instruments.
Who said Apple has to dominate the tablet market? As of now they are, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change. According to CNet, Apple shipped 4.7 million tablets last quarter. But hot…err warm… on their heels, Samsung has shipped 850,000 units – and that’s without the newly launched Galaxy Tab 10.1. Following a close third, and could even overtake Samsung, Acer shipped 800,000 units that same quarter. This is promising news for a diverse tablet market.
There’s no reason why Apple can’t become a minority player by the end of the year. Just these two companies alone have a third of Apple’s share. There is also Motorola, ASUS, LG, HTC and even the Nook by Barnes and Noble. Expand Expanding Close
While Samsung and Acer are readying their ChromeOS laptops for release this summer, the CR-48 is still being looked over. One user figured out a Firmware Easter Egg by doing some significant research (and taking a big fat hint laid earlier this week). The Hex message at the bottom converts to ASCII characters and revealing the following message:
Greetings from the Chrome OS x86 firmware team. This message is brought to you by Randall, Bill, Vadim, Gaurav, and Kelly. Also by the letter G and the number 42. If you’ve enjoyed this gadget, please join us at http://www.chromium.org to help make it even better. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress. No animals were harmed in the production of this message. Apply only to affected area. Cape does not enable wearer to fly. Contents may have settled during shipment. Use no hooks.
More trouble in Microsoft land as Bloombergreports that Microsoft device manufacturers are complaining about the software giant’s meddling in their affairs:
Microsoft Corp. is putting “troublesome” restrictions on makers of processors used to run the coming Windows tablet-computer operating system, Acer Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer J.T. Wang said.
“They’re really controlling the whole thing, the whole process,” Wang said at the Computex trade show in Taipei without identifying the restrictions. Chip suppliers and PC makers “all feel it’s very troublesome,” he said.
Acer is looking forward to shipping a million Honeycomb-driven Iconia Tab slates in the second quarter of this year, sources told Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes Friday.
Acer has been taking delivery of Iconia tablet PCs eagerly from its production partners with the company’s global shipments of tablet PCs likely to reach one million units in the second quarter, according to sources in the upstream supply chain.
The sources back this claim by pointing out surging revenues at Acer’s touch sensor suppliers Cando and Sintek Photronics.
