Google, Asus rumored to team up for co-branded 7" tablet later this year
A new rumor out of the Far East claims Google and Asus are partnering on a 7-inch co-branded tablet that could arrive as early as May and will be priced between $199-249.
A new rumor out of the Far East claims Google and Asus are partnering on a 7-inch co-branded tablet that could arrive as early as May and will be priced between $199-249.
Apple has reportedly asked Pegatron, one of its overseas device assemblers, to "choose sides" and stop producing the MacBook Air-like Zenbook from Asus, or else lose Apple's business.
PC sales in Europe plummeted in the fourth quarter of 2011, but Apple bucked that trend over the holidays, particularly in France and the U.K., with continued strong growth.
As Apple enjoys nearly a year-long head start with the Thunderbolt technology, Intel has begun notifying PC makers that it will "fully release" the high-speed I/O in April 2012, according to a new report.
Traditional PC makers are said to not be paying much attention to the tablet market controlled by Apple and now Amazon, and are instead pinning their hopes on thin-and-light Ultrabooks to improve gross margins.
Asus announced that it expects tablet shipments, which will reach 1.8 million units this year, to grow significantly next year, possibly even eclipsing the PC maker's shipments of netbooks in 2012.
Prices for laptops in Intel's "Ultrabook" category are expected to fall below $1,000 by the end of this year and may drop as much as 10 percent in the first quarter of 2012 with the help of a $100 marketing subsidy from Intel, according to a new report.
The NPD Group on Tuesday offered a picture of how tablets that are not Apple's iPad are faring in the market in the U.S., revealing that Hewlett-Packard's $99 fire sale of the failed TouchPad gave it the largest unit share so far in 2011.
Traditional PC makers like Dell and HP believe they have no advantages in the tablet market, and plan to phase out from competing with Apple's iPad, along with low-end tablets from content providers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, in 2012.
Intel's thin-and-light "Ultrabook" design, inspired in part by the success of Apple's MacBook Air form factor, continues to struggle in the market, prompting PC makers Acer and Asus to reduce orders by 40 percent.
Apple is poised to see substantial growth of its line of Mac computers in China, as a recent survey found that the company is considered the most desirable PC brand in the country with 21 percent of respondents considering a Mac as their next PC purchase.
Chipmaker Nvidia has taken the wraps off its new Tegra 3 mobile processor, a quad-core chip three times faster than its predecessor, with ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablet the first device to sport it.
Several key partners in Intel's "Ultrabook" initiative are limiting the initial shipment volumes of their responses to Apple's MacBook Air to below 50,000 units due to uncertain demand, a new report claims.
Faced with growing inventory due to sluggish sales, the makers of tablets competing with Apple's iPad are said to continue to cut prices in order to reduce losses, potentially sparking an industry-wide price war, according to a new report.
Intel Capital, the strategic investment arm of the world's largest chipmaker, announced on Wednesday a $300 million UltraBook fund to invest in new technologies for its new category of tablet-like notebooks that will challenge Apple's MacBook Air.
As hardware makers struggle to compete with the iPad in terms of sales, they also can't match Apple's design efficiency, which helps to keep the iPad's costs down, one analysis has found.
Windows-based PC makers looking to challenge Apple's extremely successful line of ultra-lightweight MacBook Airs with designs based on Intel's "Ultrabook" platform are losing hope that they'll be able to do so and still turn a profit on sales of the notebooks any time this year.
Analysts for investment bank UBS raised their 2011 forecast for Apple's iPad on Wednesday, predicting total sales of 37.9 million units for a projected 63 percent market share.
A new investor report from J.P. Morgan on Wednesday indicates that Apple's competitors in the tablet market have reduced their build plans after receiving an "early dose of reality" in the form of lackluster sales.
Intel has unveiled design guidelines for a new category of thin-and-light laptops, dubbed "Ultrabooks," that take cues from Apple's iPad and MacBook Air.
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