Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Toshiba Axes Chromebooks and Windows Tablets

Toshiba Axes Chromebooks and Windows Tablets
The IT market is a big place so, naturally, there will be many rumors running around, and one of the more recent ones says that Toshiba might have decided to completely give up on Chrome OS netbooks and slates running Windows 7.


Understandably enough, there is more than one rumor running about the web in regards to the tablet market, as are official news.

Some are definitely good, like the fact that the price of the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer could cause a wide-scale tablet price cut of $100.

Now, a rumor that is less likely to enthuse many people, save perhaps Toshiba's rivals, has emerged, courtesy of Digitimes (again).

Said report says that Toshiba has decided to completely axe all the plans it may or may not have had to deliver such things as Chromebooks or Windows tablets.

In other words, one shouldn't look forward to netbooks loaded with Google's Chrome OS, nor towards Intel-powered slates running Windows 7.

Toshiba did have a Windows 7 tablet on show the 2011 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show, only to end up changing plans when Android rose in profile.

Then, slates got delayed, whether they were ARM or x86, and the ones that didn't turned out to be a fair bit too expensive for most.

Additionally, the company didn't do well on the smartbook (basically small Android netbooks) market last year, this being the main cause of its caution when it comes to the newly formed Chromebook market.

All in all, the company has been changing strategies, or already has, and said strategy does not include the Chromebook and Wintel tablet.

On the other hand, one can be sure that Toshiba will not skip on joining the Tegra 2 slate race, with a 10.1-inch Android 3.0 (or maybe 3.1) model set to debut in June.