Acer has launched its budget Windows 10 Cloudbook in Australia with JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys the first to sell the devices.
The 11-inch Acer Aspire One costs $299 and is currently exclusive to JB Hi-Fi, while the 14-inch model costs $399 and is currently exclusive to The Good Guys.
A spokesperson from Acer confirmed the Cloudbook would be available to other resellers to stock.
Both models are powered by an Intel Celeron N3050 Dual-core processor, 2GB of DDR3L RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of storage. The Acer Cloudbook comes with a one-year subscription to Office 365 and up 1TB OneDrive storage.
Acer’s latest device is a continuation of Microsoft’s push to offer low-cost devices to compete against Google’s Chromebooks. Acer also supplies two Chromebooks, in 11.6- and 13.3-inch sizes.
The Cloudbook was revealed at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in July by Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner.
Turner told the WPC audience about five advantages when selling against Chromebooks: that Windows 10 devices can run desktop and web apps; they offer the "widest range of hardware options"; they work with limited bandwidth; have built-in two factor authentication; and "connect to a wide variety of peripherals".
Last year, Microsoft announced the HP Stream running Windows 8.1 would cost US$199. Australian online reseller Kogan also launched its $359 X14FHD Windows 8.1 laptop in May.
Microsoft is also selling the Aspire One on its US online store.
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