According to a report from PCWorld, new Chromebooks powered by Intel's 'Haswell' processors are expected to be announced at the Intel Developer Forum, which runs from September 10-12 in San Francisco.
Intel's general manager of software and services, Doug Fisher, will allegedly take the stage on Wednesday to deliver a keynote discussing the new devices. A Google executive will join him to discuss the optimization of Android and Chrome for Intel processors.
It's expected that new OEMs - other than Google, HP, Lenovo, Acer and Samsung - will start producing Chromebooks with Haswell processors inside. Typically Chromebooks fall into the lower price segment of the market (Acer's Chromebook starts at $199), and it's possible new devices will pack Intel's low-power Y-series chips with a 4.5W sDP designed for fanless tablets.
New high-end Chromebooks may also be unveiled, packing a higher-end Haswell processor. Google's $1299 Chromebook Pixel, which features a 12.5-inch 2560 x 1700 display, uses a 1.8 GHz dual-core 'Ivy Bridge' CPU, and it's possible new devices may be released with similar specs and an upgraded Haswell CPU.
Adoption of Chromebooks, especially Google's Chromebook Pixel, has been relatively slow, with consumers preferring to purchase a cheap tablet or low-end Windows-powered laptop over a system running Chrome OS. Google's Chrome OS is designed primarily for running web applications, which has turned many away from buying a PC often referred to as a "glorified web browser".
Google are hoping that by including more powerful and more battery friendly chips in their Chromebooks, the systems will begin to gain momentum. However, with Android dominating cheap device sales, it may be a case of Google's OSes competing against each other.