ASUS and Acer are gearing up to launch new Chromebooks later this year, according to industry sources.

An ‘aggressive marketing campaign’ by Google to promote the new laptop will accompany their release later this year says Chinese tech industry blog Digitimes.

Digitimes were the first to report that Google had an own-brand touch-screen Chromebook in the works.

Citing ‘sources’ from the upstream supply chain, Digitimes also reveal some interesting sales figures for Acer’s most recent Chromebook, the C7.

Acer shipped 150,000-200,000 C7 units between November and December 2012

By January 2013 this dropped to 20,000-30,000 units

Acer halted future C7 shipments

But this drop-off hasn’t deterred them from continuing to back the browser-esque operating system. A new 11.6″ laptop is purportedly in production for release towards the end of July 2013.

Joining them will be ASUS, whose first Chromebook is rumoured to be ARM-based and sport a touch-screen.

The rumours come just weeks after word of Android-powered laptops broke – a plan that chip maker Intel recently gave tacit confirmation towards.