Qualcomm Wants to Power Pricier Chromebooks

BARCELONA—Qualcomm is interested in Chromebooks, just its machines won't be cheap.

MWC Bug Art At Mobile World Congress today, Monte Giles, Qualcomm's new manager of production management for mobile computing, introduced himself as the guy for Windows on Snapdragon, Android tablets, and Chromebooks. Wait, Chromebooks? While we've seen rumors of Chromium repository edits, hinting that Qualcomm Chromebooks are coming, we hadn't heard annihilation from Qualcomm.

Chromebooks are primarily used as super-cheap laptops for education, but "if the Chromebook market stays at sub-$300 [boilerplate selling prices] information technology's not that interesting to usa," Giles said. Qualcomm wants to make premium Chromebooks, apparently. "What we're watching closely is when the [average selling prices] start to get to a higher place $500."

That jibes well with the earlier news that Qualcomm'due south premium processor, the new 845, is being tested for Chromebooks, and not its less expensive or midrange processors.

Most Chromebooks run on low-stop Intel chips, although there are a few Mediatek and Rockchip Chromebooks out there. Lenovo's new Chromebook 300e (shown higher up) runs on a Mediatek processor. Correct now, the only Chromebooks over $500 are the $599 Samsung Chromebook Pro and the $899 Google Pixelbook.

Qualcomm Chromebooks would exist "sparse and light, fanless designs" aimed at small and medium businesses that want long battery lives, Giles said. Presumably, they would too have LTE on lath, considering that'southward included in the 845, and it's a characteristic with which Qualcomm loves to differentiate itself. "Stay tuned" for more than news most Qualcomm Chromebooks, Giles said.

Chromebooks may exist coming up, just Android tablets are fading, Giles said. Prices are declining, and Qualcomm "sees more value in the premium tier, and that's why we've actually embraced Windows," he said.

The first Qualcomm-powered Windows laptops, presumably the ones from HP, Lenovo, and Asus that have already been announced, are coming out in March, Qualcomm appear final week.