Acer denies Chrome OS netbook launch is near
Worried by rumours?
Acer has gone on record to state that it will not be launching netbooks based on Google's Chrome OS in the "short term".
"Acer believes that Chrome OS is without doubt an exciting product announcement and deserves its full attention as well as an in-depth study of its potential from a consumers perspective," the Taiwanese corporation said.
And here's the 'but...':
"Despite recent rumours in the press regarding the launch of Chrome OS-based netbooks at Computex, Acer today confirms that it has no short-term plans for such a product."
The company said it will "be following the development and progress of Google Chrome and the evolution of Google’s overall product strategy very closely".
This latest statement is in contrast to comments made earlier this year by Jim Wong, head of Acer’s IT products division. In January, Wong said ten per cent of Acer’s netbooks will feature Chrome after the OS' appearance in Q3.
Wong said the adoption of Chrome was motivated by “a change to the Microsoft-Intel environment”, indicating that the netbooks would use ARM-based processors.
A month earlier, Acer chairman JT Wang has said his firm will be first to launch a Chrome-based netbook.
Of course, all that was before the introduction and arrival of the iPad. Manufacturers like Acer will undoubtedly have been prompted by Apple device to rethink their hardware - netbooks, tablets and e-book readers - and operating system software strategies.
They may well conclude their original, pre-iPad approach is still the best one to take, but there's no doubt the iPad will have prompted a fresh look.
That Acer feels the need now to tell World+Dog it doesn't have a Chrome OS netbook in the works is surprising. If it was to release one in Q3 or Q4, an appearance of the prototype at Computex, which takes place early next month, would not be out of the ordinary.
Clearly it now wants to avoid disappointing market watchers which implies its timetable for release such product has been considerably delayed. Or even dropped altogether. ®
COMMENTS
You're right
Per ZDNet:
"ARM dominates the mobile phone chip design market and has since 2008 been trying to get into the subnotebook market as well. The plan was to do so through Linux-based, ARM-powered 'smartbooks' that would provide an instant-on, longer-life alternative to x86-based netbooks but, according to ARM's marketing vice president, Ian Drew, events have conspired to stall this plan.
"We thought [smartbooks] would be launched by now, but they're not," Drew told ZDNet UK on Tuesday. "I think one reason is to do with software maturity. We've seen things like Adobe slip — we'd originally scheduled for something like 2009."
Too bad I don't have access to the source
I'd try to port Flash Player 10.1 to my Palm Pre :-)
Flash works fine on Arm
Or it did a year ago, when I cross compiled it for an Arm chip with an OpenVG backend. The problem is more likely to be in the hardware acceleration side of things, without which the video playback is pretty (very) slow.. That's a real can of worms
Of course, Office 2010 won't cross compile - I am sure MS have made sure of that.....but then, people don't really NEED that for a tablet.
Going out on a limb
Is this to be expected with the issues involving Flash and ARM chips I've been reading about on this very site? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Judging from all the forums
it won't sell without flash player and people need MS Office 2010, too.
Mine's the one with the slackware CD in the pocket.
