Asus and Dell enter the Chromebox market

Dell has announced its first Chromebox and Asus has announced a higher-end second Chromebox model targeting the meeting room market.

The Chromebox is essentially a small form factor PC running Google’s Chrome OS instead of Microsoft’s Windows OS. The free OS allows the OEM to pass a lot of savings on to the consumer, and also means, depending on the use case, less powerful (and less expensive) hardware can be used to power it. It’s the desktop version of the Chromebook laptops many vendors have launched.

The first Asus Chromebox, launched earlier this month, is a budget model priced starting at US$179 – although that can go up with Intel Core i3 and i7 processor options – targeted at the home, classroom and small office market.

Asus recently followed up that announcement with the Chromebox for meetings, which it describes as a powerful but compact in-room video solution. Powered by an Intel Core i7 processor, it includes a Logitech 1080p HD video camera, combined microphone and speaker unit from Jabra, Philips remote control, cable accessory kit and software package. Google Hangouts and Google Apps are integrated to power meetings. It’s priced starting at US$999, with availability later this month.

Dell is also developing a Chromebox for meetings product. According to Dell, it will be “an integrated solution designed to help geographically dispersed teams conduct meetings from a large variety of devices, from nearly anywhere, and collaborate ‘face-to-face’ in a virtual environment.” It will include an HD camera, combined microphone and speaker unit and a remote control.

“We are excited to be working closely with Google on such an innovative solution that gives professionals the opportunity to connect, collaborate and meet face-to-face no matter where they are,” commented Neil Hand, vice-president and general manager, Dell Tablet Group, in a statement. “We are committed to enabling our customers to be productive and effective in any professional setting, and improve the office meeting experience.”

Dell described product availability as “in the coming months” and no pricing or hardware specifications were released.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Jeff Jedras
Jeff Jedras
A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate. He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN. His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.

Related Tech News

Featured Tech Jobs

 

CDN in your inbox

CDN delivers a critical analysis of the competitive landscape detailing both the challenges and opportunities facing solution providers. CDN's email newsletter details the most important news and commentary from the channel.