Lenovo looking at coming out with low cost Chromebooks in early 2015

Lenovo is expected to launch low cost notebooks starting early next year. It is looking at a sub US $170 (approx Rs 10,500) price point which according to the Taiwan based supply chain makers will bring down profits for notebook vendors. The unique thing about these Lenovo Chromebooks will be their internals. Instead of housing an Intel or Qualcomm chips, the Chromebooks will be powered by CPUs from China based Rockchip Electronics. The Chromebooks will be produced by China based ODM Bitland Information Technology. Rockchip will also be responsible for the integration of the supply chain for Lenovo. From the looks of it, the upcoming Lenovo Chromebook will be a completely Chinese product. Lenovo aims at shipping around 1.5 million Chromebooks in 2015. Looking at the whole picture as far as Chromebooks are concerned, around 6 million units are expected to be sold in 2014 and this number is expected to double to 12 million units in 2015 with companies such as Asus, Acer and Samsung also selling Chromebooks alongside Lenovo.  Earlier on November 6th, Lenovo said that it had sold 35.6 million notebooks, desktops, tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices during second quarter of 2014. China leads the tally with a market share of 37 per cent for desktops and notebooks (with 21 per cent for notebooks and 18 per cent for desktops) followed by other Asian countries having a 16 per cent market share.