Lenovo to launch cheap Chromebooks next year, reports say


Lenovo might be gearing up to launch a range of Chromebook models, all pricing up at under £110.


A new report from Digitimes reckons the Chinese tech firm will flog the low-cost notebooks in early 2015.


Citing Taiwan-based supply chains, the site reckons Lenovo’s Chromebooks will run off CPUs designed by Rockchip Electronics, another China-based firm.


Rockchip will also head up the supply chain integration for Lenovo, while ODM Bitland Information Technology will be responsible for actually building the processors used.


Digitimes also says Lenovo will ship 1.5 million Chromebooks next year, up 212% from this year, which signals that the firm could be planning a fresh influx of Google-powered kit.


Chromebooks are typically a cheap alternative to Windows-based notebooks, so the rumours of bargain-basement price tags for upcoming Lenovo wares could be on point.


Lenovo already sells Chromebooks, with this year seeing the release of the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11e and the Lenovo N20p.


Chromebooks usually price up somewhere between £150 and £250, so a Lenovo coming in with a potential double-figure price tag could eat up low-end market share.


Google launched its Chrome OS back in 2011, with Acer and Samsung signing up as the first brands to launch Chromebooks later that year.


Since then, a raft of other OEMs have joined the fray, including Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, and Google itself.


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