Acer may be charging ahead with plans to be the first vendor to offer a Google Chrome OS-based notebook PC and beat others, including Dell, to market.
The Taiwan-based technology news site Digitimes Wednesday reported that Acer is expected to launch Google Chrome OS-based notebook PCs in the second half of 2010, citing unnamed industry sources.
Acer Chairman J.T. Wang has also publicly expressed his expectations that his company will be the first with such a product, Digitimes wrote.
Acer and rivals Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard have all signed on to produce notebook PCs with the operating system. Dell also has reportedly been working on getting Google Chrome OS ready for its notebook PCs.
Google released its Chrome OS to open source last month, at which time it estimated that devices using the operating system should be ready to go to market in time for the 2010 holiday season.
Taiwan-based Acer is currently the world's second-largest PC manufacturer based in large part on its notebook PC business. The company has the largest notebook PC market share in several Asian and European countries.
Acer could be looking to increase that part of its business. Digitimes last week reported that Acer is mulling an acquisition of Toshiba's PC business. That follows reports that rival Taiwan-based notebook PC maker Asustek is considering an acquisition of Toshiba's notebook PC business.
