Acer reports brisk Chromebook sales while Windows 8 still lags

Acer's still hoping for Windows 8 sales to take off, but in the meantime, the company has been pleasantly surprised with sales of its Chromebooks.

Since November, Chromebooks have accounted for 5 percent to 10 percent of Acer's U.S. shipments, Acer President Jim Wong told Bloomberg. The company is now considering expanding Chromebook sales to other developed markets.

Along with Samsung, Acer was the first company to sell Chromebooks in 2011, but the browser-based operating system was still rough around the edges at the time, and the hardware wasn't much less expensive than comparable Windows machines.

The software has improved since then, and in November, Acer launched a $200 Chromebook, with an 11.6-inch display, Intel Celeron processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive. Samsung sells Chromebooks for $250 and $450, and Lenovo recently announced a rugged Chromebook for schools.

Wong praised Chromebooks for being "more secure," and said he hopes corporations will show interest.

Still waiting on Windows 8

But while Chromebooks have been a relative success, Acer isn't as pleased with Windows 8 sales so far. The company's total PC shipments dropped by 28 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, despite the launch of Microsoft's latest operating system.

"Windows 8 itself is still not successful," Wong said. "The whole market didn't come back to growth after the Windows 8 launch, that's a simple way to judge if it is successful or not."

In fairness, expectations for Windows 8 are much higher than they are for Chrome OS. As consumers snap up tablets instead of replacing old laptops, Microsoft's touch-friendly operating system was supposed to revive the ailing PC market. Microsoft also piled on the marketing for Windows 8, with one report estimating $1.5 billion in spending, so PC makers were likely hoping those efforts would pay off.

Still, PC makers such as Acer need to shoulder some of the blame for weaker-than-expected sales. Windows 8 hybrids, which combine a tablet and laptop into a single device, were in short supplythrough the holiday season, and at this point it's tempting to wait for next-generation devices, such as hybrids based on Intel's Bay Trail and Haswell chips.

Meanwhile, it seems that Acer will keep making Chromebooks. That's good news if you want to see Google's browser-based operating system continue to evolve.

HP will jump on the Chromebook bandwagon: Report

Another week, another major PC vendor announcing that it's planning a Chromebook offering of its own. Last week, it was Lenovo; this week, according to reports, it's none other than HP.

Acer, meanwhile, is riding high on its own Chromebook sales, and Samsung's offering is currently the No. 1 top-selling laptop on Amazon.

As Windows 8 continues to lag, it's difficult not to envision rising anxiety levels at Microsoft in Redmond.

A 14-inch display

According to a PDFthat the Verge found earlier today on HP's site (since apparently taken down), the company is planning what's referred to as a Pavilion Chromebook.

Featuring a 1.1GHz Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 16GB solid-state drive, the device will also sport a 14-inch, 1366-by-768 display, the publication reports--considerably bigger than the 11.6-inch screens offered by most of its competitors, though apparently on par in terms of resolution.

Battery life is apparently another key differentiator, however, with the spec sheet listing just 4 hours and 15 minutes. Samsung's Chromebook, by contrast, offers closer to seven hours.

'Another nail in Microsoft's coffin'

Still, it's difficult not to marvel over the growing Chromebook phenomenon, particularly now that such major vendors are getting involved.

Acer President Jim Wong told Bloomberg that Chromebooks have accounted for 5 percent to 10 percent of Acer's U.S. shipments since November.

The Street, meanwhile, recently referred to Lenovo's Chromebook as "another nail in Microsoft's coffin." The success of Samsung's entry, of course, speaks for itself.

No love lost

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will always be famous for calling Linux a "cancer."

And it wasn't all that long ago that he expressed more concern over competition from Linux than from Apple. Soon afterwards, he also didn't hold back in expressing his views of Google's Linux-based Chrome OS.

With four key PC makers now jumping on the Chromebook bandwagon, is Microsoft in a fresh batch of trouble? Sound off with your views in the comments.

Lenovo offers ThinkPad X131e with Chrome OS

Lenovo has announced a rugged ThinkPad X131e laptop starting at US$429 with Google's Chrome OS.

Lenovo joins Acer and Samsung as companies offering laptops with Chrome OS. The X131e, announced Thursday, has an 11.6-inch screen and runs on an Intel processor.

Google's Chrome OS is an operating system for those who do most of their computing from the Web. Laptops with the OS are also referred to as Chromebooks.

Lenovo's X131e is more expensive than Acer's C7 Chromebook, which starts at $199 and is also based on an Intel processor. Samsung's Chromebooks, which start at $249, run on an ARM processor.

Other features in the Lenovo laptop include a webcam and HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) and VGA ports. The laptop has rubber bumpers so that it can withstand being dropped.

The laptop will begin shipping Feb. 26, but a Lenovo spokesman could not provide the countries it will ship to then.

Lenovo is targeting the education market with the laptop, which will be offered through resellers in some regions. The spokesman could not say when the laptop will be available to consumers.

The company earlier targeted netbooks at the education market, but stopped selling them because of weak demand.

Lenovo is the world's second-largest PC maker. The company also offers a model of X131e with Windows 7 starting at $699.99.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

Three simple rules for buying a new laptop

This is the time of year when friends, family members, casual acquaintances, and people in the street stop me to ask about buying a new PC.

"What should I get?" they ask. "What do I need?" Also heard with increasing frequency: "Should I get a tablet instead of a laptop?"

Loaded questions, to be sure, but not difficult ones. A tablet can take the place of a laptop if all you do is browse the Web and read e-mail. If you need to get any serious work done, whether for school or business or just everyday life, a laptop is still the smarter choice. It gives you a keyboard, a bigger screen, copious amounts of storage, and compatibility with all your favorite software.

So, what kind of laptop should you get, and with what specs and features? I can make this really simple:

1. Get at least 4GB of RAM.

That's "four gigabytes of memory" for those who don't speak PC. Anything less and your system will run like molasses--something to keep in mind as Black Friday deals roll around. Many "doorbuster" laptops will have only 2GB of RAM, and that's just not enough.

2. If you can afford it, get a system with an SSD.

That's short for "solid-state drive," which has no moving parts and therefore runs faster, generates less heat, and consumes less power than a traditional hard drive. You'll pay a premium for an SSD and end up with less storage space, but how much do you really need? Most folks I know rarely fill up more than 100GB.

Indeed, although a 128GB SSD may seem like a downgrade compared with, say, a 500GB hard drive, the speed benefits alone are worth the extra money.

3. Try before you buy.

Although brick-and-mortar tech stores are few and far between these days, there are still places where you can go and browse laptops in person. And that's something you should definitely do.

Sure, you can shop online based on specs and price, but you owe it to yourself to test-drive the keyboard. And the trackpad. Make sure they're comfortable and responsive. Likewise, check the screen: is it glossy and therefore heavy on the glare? Whenever possible, try to lay hands on a laptop before buying it.

One more "rule."

Notice that I didn't mention the procesor. Unless you're doing heavy-duty video editing or playing a lot of graphics-intensive games, the processor just isn't the big factor it used to be. They're all pretty fast nowadays.

As for brands, I have similar feelings: they're all pretty good nowadays. That said, it's always a good idea to do your homework, starting with PC World's Reliability and Satisfaction surveys.

What other advice would you give to someone shopping for a new laptop?