Chromebooks are siphoning market share from Windows PCs
Chrome PC shipments in 2015 set to grow compared to 2014, writes Agam Shah
hipments of PCs with Google’s Chrome OS are growing at the expense of Windows laptops and desktops, as the PC market suffers its biggest slump since 2008. Especially popular are Chromebooks, which are basic Chrome OS notebooks for web computing. They have proved particularly attractive to students, educational institutions and budget buyers.
Worldwide Chrome PC shipments in 2015 are expected to surpass those in 2014, according to market analyst IDC. They accounted for 2.8 percent of all PCs shipped worldwide through the first three quarters of 2015. For all of 2014, Chrome PCs accounted for 1.9 percent of all computers shipped.
According to Jay Chou, research manager at IDC, Chrome PC shipments in 2015 will outpace those in 2014, and the growth trend will continue in 2016.
About 5.7 million Chrome PCs shipped in the first three quarters of 2015, a figure that’s only slightly lower than the 5.86 million shipped for the whole of 2014. Total PC shipments worldwide were 276.21 million in 2015, declining by 10.4 percent from 2014, according to IDC. A breakdown for how many of those shipments were for Chromebooks in the final quarter is not yet available.
Expectations weren’t high when the first Chromebooks were launched in 2011. Shipments of the laptops started growing at a steady pace when the second-generation of Chromebooks started shipping in late 2013. All top PC makers, with the exception of Apple, now offer Chrome laptops and desktops. Google has promoted them as a low-cost replacement to Windows PCs, especially with more people using web applications. The search giant also promised
Sregular operating system updates and the ability to use applications offline when the computer isn’t connected to the internet.
Microsoft took on the Chromebook challenge by encouraging PC makers to develop low-cost laptops with the free Windows 8.1 with Bing OS. But that effort ended when it released Windows 10, Chou said. PC prices are also rising, while Chromebooks remain inexpensive because they use basic hardware. Windows 10 has advantages over the Chrome OS. Windows can be used for a wide range of graphics, productivity and CAD/CAM applications, and it supports more hardware. However, Google’s operating system is much leaner.
The future of Chrome OS is clouded, though. Late in 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google planned to merge the operating system into Android.