Oh, on top of scraping off Windows RT and replacing it with Android on warehouse stocks of units, now Asus has also begun to roll out a brand line of brand new products intended to replace what isn't selling with what
is selling.
Right now that's Chromebooks and Chromeboxes. Asus is busy rolling out on both of them out as we speak.
http://liliputing.com/2014/02/asus-c200-c300-chromebooks-coming-soon.htmlAsus is aiming at a full range of chromebooks from cheap to relatively hefty memory/power wise.
...... and let's talk about them chrome boxes for a minute. http://liliputing.com/2014/02/asus-chromebox-tiny-chrome-os-desktop-179.html"For $179 you get a model with an Intel Celeron 2955U processor. Asus also plans to offer a model with a Core i3-4010U processor in the United States, but pricing hasn’t yet been set for that model. The company will offer a version with an Intel Core i7-4600U CPU in select markets.
All three models features 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI and DisplayPort, 4 USB 3.0 ports, a headset jack, and an SD card slot. Asus tells me the case will be fanless.
Asus it outfitting the little PCs with 16GB of solid state storage and up to 4GB of RAM, although the entry-level model will have just 2GB. Google will provide customers with 100GB of cloud storage with Google Drive for free for 2 years."=====================
Now, what is really notable about a Chrome Box? First, it is made to an exacting set of HARDWARE STANDARDS that Google actually enforces. Be it ARM or Intel inside for the processor, the Chrome build standards make the unit THE SAME SAME as far as an OS would see it.
This is very important, because all the FOSS OS's really need is something stable and consistent to write to ....
"I suspect plenty of Liliputing readers will be interested for another reason: With a starting price of $179 and Chrome hardware’s proven track record of allowing support for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, this could be a small, cheap, hacker-friendly computer."I smell a set of standards for ARM beginning to poke its nose into the dominance tent ...... IT departments in major companies that have their own intranet are currently flocking to Chromebooks for replacement laptops for the worker bees. They find BIG SAVINGS in doing so. A single VMWare liscense supports roll out of variety of softwares using that intranet and the Chrome system -- this VMWare roll out includes MS Office.
School systems are going to ChromeBooks and rented over the net softwares for K-12 students as it is MUCH cheaper to do that than the MS "buy everything" business model.
When Asus goes Chrome standard, it signals a tipping point is approaching.
When HP goes Chrome standard, it will signal the tip rotation is happening now.
When the Chinese Cheapie guys begin to honor ANY standard it signals that "mainstream" has occurred.
Since Google's Chrome and Android are the only standards out there these may become the new ARM standards by default.