A few weeks after the first video of the purported high definition, touch-screen Chromebook emerged online, a new
report by the Wall Street Journal also confirms that the said devices are in development.
The report cites sources familiar with the matter to reveal that these laptops powered by Google's Chrome operating system will be sold later this year.
It will be interesting to see how Google will work to attract developers to make touch optimised apps for the Chromebook, although it won't be too difficult as the Chrome OS mainly runs HTML5 based web apps. The touch-enabled devices would in a way compete with Google's other mobile and tablet operating system, Android, as more people switch to these devices, choosing them over notebooks.
Earlier, developer Francois Beaufort
posted a video titled "New ChromeBook Pixel - Next Generation Concept" to his Google+ page. The video begins with the definition of pixels and goes on to hint at what could be expected from Google's next generation Chromebook.
Designed by engineers at Google, the machines strikes great resemblance with Apple's Mac Book Pro, especially the way the keyboard is laid out. Francois Beaufort also mentions that the device is called Google Link and was currently undergoing testing at Google's Mountain View campus.
Google launched its Chromebooks in May 2011. Since then, the company has released various versions of Chromebook laptops in partnership with Samsung and Acer. Chromebooks run on the Chrome OS. which resembles, for the most part, the Google Chrome browser.
Initially the Chromebooks got off to a slow start regarding sales but have recently shown signs of popularity, after Google made the laptops available to classrooms for an attractive price of just $99.