Slowly but surely, the Chromebook market is seeing some growth globally. In 2014, Google announced they would be selling Chromebooks to consumers in Japan. Prior to that time, Chrome OS devices were available only through enterprise accounts.
The Japanese market is predominantly a Window one with Microsoft’s operating system holding over eighty percent of consumer share. Until recently that is. In just the last month, Windows PCs have seen a significant drop to as low as seventy-two percent of the market.
Linux has maintained a consistent, albeit low, following in the Japanese market but have avoided the sharp losses that Windows is experiencing.
That leads us to Chrome OS. While Chromebooks have yet to grab even one percent of the market, one company looks to be taking on change on Google’s lightweight OS.
Our friend Suzuki Akifumi from office-kabu messaged us last night to share this press release from ASUS Japan.
we will start accepting reservations from today and will start selling sequentially from the middle of August.
– ASUS Japan
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The reservations they are speaking of are none other than the three latest models of Chromebooks from the Flip lineup. The ASUS Chromebook Flip C302, the rugged Chromebook Flip C213 and the upcoming 10.1″ Flip C101 will soon be available to consumers in Japan direct from ASUS.
The press release goes on to state that each consumer model will also have a corresponding education/enterprise version. The specs appear to be the same with the only difference being that the consumer variant of the C213 Chromebook will not be compatible with the optional stylus.
Up unto this point, the only Chrome device available from ASUS’ Japanese storefront was the original Flip C100. Seeing the addition of the three newest devices they offer is a strong indicator that ASUS and likely Google have high hopes for the Chrome OS market in Japan.
Pre-orders are available at ASUS right now. Pricing is as follows not including tax.
Chromebook Flip C302: ¥ 75,384
- Core m3
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB Storage
- 12.5′ 1920×1080 touch display @ 350 nits
Chromebook Flip C213: ¥ 53,784
- Celeron N3350 Apollo Lake
- 4GB RAM
- 32GB Storage
- 11.6″ 1366×768 touch display
Chromebook Flip C101: ¥ 42,984
- OP1 RK3399 ARM by RockChip
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB Storage
- 10.1″ 1280×800 touch display
We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will mark a turning point for the global Chromebook market. It will be exciting to see how these devices will be received and what impact it may have on other manufacturers decisions to expand their consumer base.
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Special thanks to Suzuki for sharing this exciting news.
Sources: OS Market Shares, ASUS
