Asus, on Wednesday, launched Chromebox, a fast, compact home or office computer which runs on Chrome operating system (OS).
Globally, the Taiwan-headquartered Asus is the leading computer motherboard manufacturer and the third largest tablet vendor having sold more than 11 million units. It makes a host of products, including Zen mobile phones.
The Midnight Blue Chromebox comes in three variants. The CN60 Celeron model with 2 GB RAM is priced at Rs.21,000, the CN60 Core i3 model with 4 GB RAM at Rs.36,500, and the CN60 Core i7 model also with 4 GB RAM at Rs.58,000.
Addressing a press conference, Vinay Shetty, Country Head, Component Business, Asus (India), said the product had already been launched in two countries. “It is a new vertical and part of our consumer product line. Today, the next generation personal computer (PC) is evolving and there is a limitation of data storage.”
“There has been an increasing demand for small form factor mini PCs / HTPCs (home theatre PCs) and the Chromebox would be a great alternative for such applications. With Intel’s latest Haswell processors and 4K ultra high definition video playback and running Google’s Chrome OS, the Chromebox is a great new device for customers looking for a mini PC,” he said.
It houses a fourth generation Intel Celeron processor. Mr. Shetty said that the best of Google was available on Chrome OS. “There are more than 60 Google services integrated already.”
While he did not give any sales target for the Chromebox, Mr. Shetty said Asus had 112 stores across India. Chromebox would be launched in 40 exclusive stores and would also be sold on-line, he added.
