Acer Chromebase announced, touchscreen in tow

When the very first Chromebook debuted, a number of people wrote off the idea, saying a web-centric ‘computer’ experience would never take off. Fast-forwarding to today, the Chromebook market is slowly but surely gaining traction, in large part due to its consumer-friendly pricing. Will 2015 be the year that Chrome OS truly pushes its way out of niche territory and into the mainstream? It is certainly starting to look that way.

Just yesterday, Google unveiled a number of new Chromebooks and even new Chromebit dongle for transforming monitors and TVs into Chrome OS devices. Today the Mountain View giant revealed a new tool that will make it easier for developers to test out their Android apps on Chrome, with the end goal of bringing these apps over to Chrome OS. And now Acer has announced a new touch-driven Chromebase.

The new Chromebase features a 21.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a Tegra K1 processor, HDMI out, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and two 3W audio speakers. As for other details like internal storage, RAM, or even the price tag? At this stage, we have no clue, though they say the device is heading our way this summer, so we’ll learn more in the coming months.

The big question is whether anyone is actually interested in a desktop Chrome OS experience. Current Chromebox and Chromebase units haven’t exactly had the same level of growth as the Chromebook. Perhaps the combination of touchscreen optimization and a (hopeful) growth in the number of supported Android apps will be enough to make the Acer Chrombebase appeal to more consumers? Only time will tell for sure.

What do you think of the Acer Chromebase? How much would you be willing to pay for such a device?