Toshiba Killing Off Plans for a Windows 7 Tablet & Chromebook

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At CES 2011, Toshiba excitedly announced plans for a Windows 7-powered tablet computer and plans to build their own Google Chrome OS powered notebook computer. With other manufacturers taking the lead in that regard, Toshiba seems to have lost interest.

Toshiba announced at this year’s CES that they had plans to build a whole slew of devices, including those that run on Windows 7, Android and even Chrome OS. During that time, it was the heat of excitement over Google’s release of the prototype Cr-48 laptop computers. With Samsung and Acer officially launching their own Chromebook products soon, Toshiba  doesn’t seem to have interest in this market anymore.

Toshiba cites poor sales of its Android-powered AC-100 smartbook netbook computers in 2010, and is wary of entering the Chromebook market for fear it might not bee too popular. With Chromebooks not being much of a tried-and-tested platform yet, Acer and Samsung are, indeed, taking a gamble. But since Toshiba is pulling out even before the race has begun, it’s losing out on that big potential for being among the first to market with Chrome OS notebooks.

Aside from these plans being abandoned, Toshiba is also reportedly no longer pursuing Windows 7-powered tablets. Perhaps Toshiba is taking a conservative approach and wants to focus on areas where it knows it can compete well in.