Acer Taking Chrome OS, Cloud Apps to the Desktop

Although many people think of them as older participants in the portable computing market, the fact is that Chromebooks based on Google's Chrome OS first went on sale in June of 2011--not long ago. Since then, portable systems based on Chrome OS have done fairly well, selling particularly well over the holidays, and helping to introduce many consumers to the basics of cloud computing.

Acer has been one of the permanent players in Chrome OS portables, but the company has now announced a desktop flavor.  Its Chromebase device is announced right after Google and partners unveiled a new line of Chrome-related products targeted to launch shortly.

Acer's Chromebase system will launch iin the second quarter in America and the Asia Pacific region. The all-in-one has a 21.5-inch 1080p touchscreen display and an Nvidia Tegra K1 quad-core processor. 

As CTimes reports:

"The new Acer Chromebase comes with a Full HD resolution, 178-degree viewing angle display which incorporates 10-point touch technology, enabling more than one user to work, play and interact together. The device boots up in 10 seconds, and has multiple layers of security built-in with automatic system updates. Chrome OS supports multiple users and accounts while photos, videos, music, and documents are all synchronized and backed-up with the user’s Google account. Acer Chromebase also comes with a complimentary 100 gigabytes of Google Drive storage so users have plenty of space."

The Chromebase also has has two 3W audio speakers and HDMI out, USB 3.0, USB 2.0 ports in addition to 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless connectivity options.

Gartner Researchers have reported that Acer is now the world’s leading Chromebook brand with over 36 percent market share in 2014.

There is no price for the Chromebase yet, but details should come shortly.