Asus sold the Chrome OS Netbook in June, priced at $ 200

Asus may launch a 10-inch netbook running Google Chrome OS or Android 3.0 in June this year.

>>> Sony is about to launch a laptop running Chrome OS

This device costs from 200 USD (~ 4.2 million VND) will be equipped with single core Intel Atom chip and aimed at users who need to run basic or web browsing applications, according to Taiwanese newspaper Digitimes. .

Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, said Chrome OS devices will " hit the shelves " in the middle of this year. Because Asus is one of Google's Chrome OS partners and plans to launch a netbook in 2011, the June release will likely run Chrome OS rather than Android.

Google has launched the Chrome OS operating system nearly 2 years ago, but the company looks for this giant and its partners, including HP, Lenovo, Toshiba and Asus have not yet launched netbooks running Chrome OS. This OS is basically the same as Google's Chrome browser, but has additional limited-driver support for hardware devices. Netbooks running Chrome OS will mainly store data online and only have a small amount of storage built into the device.

Chrome OS device may have been an attractive idea when it was first released in July 2009. But when the iPad tablet came out in early 2010, followed by another series of tablets, it could be said that the time of Google computers was over. Like the Chrome OS netbook, the tablet is designed to replace personal computers, especially when you don't want to carry your powerful laptop everywhere.

Apple has sold more iPads than netbooks by some computer manufacturers. Specifically, Apple sold about 15 million iPads in 2010, while Asus sold only 6 million of their popular Eee PC netbooks in the same period. Analysts have predicted Apple's iPad 2 will sell half a million units within three days of its launch. Apple has not officially announced iPad 2 sales.

A strong point about Chrome OS netbooks compared to tablets may be the price, if rumors of a $ 200 netbook price of the Asus netbook are true. The cheapest iPad model is now 500 USD (~ 10.5 million) and Motorola Xoom runs Android version with only Wi-Fi price of 600 USD (~ 12.6 million). If Asus could launch a Chrome OS netbook for half the price of an iPad tablet, that would be attractive enough to ' drag ' tablet users back to the device that is close to this traditional laptop.