Chromebooks Outsell Macs For the First Time In the US (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report on The Verge: Google's low-cost Chromebooks outsold Apple's range of Macs for the first time in the U.S. recently. IDC analyst Linn Huang confirmed the milestone to The Verge. "Chrome OS overtook Mac OS in the US in terms of shipments for the first time in 1Q16," says Huang. "Chromebooks are still largely a US K-12 story." IDC estimates Apple's U.S. Mac shipments to be around 1.76 million in the latest quarter, meaning Dell, HP, and Lenovo sold nearly 2 million Chromebooks in Q1 combined. Chromebooks have been extremely popular in US schools, and it's clear from IDC's comments the demand is driving US shipments. Outside of the US, it's still unclear exactly how well Google's low-cost laptops are doing. Most data from market research firms like IDC and Gartner focuses solely on Google's wins in the US.

Comments

Chromebook is great

[halivar]

The low cost with touch screen tells me all the other laptops are extremely marked up. My only disappointment is the lack of apps for it. But for simple Google Docs work, it can't be beat for the dollar.

Re:Chromebook is great

[captaindomon]

Prices of products from large corporations that know what they are doing are not set based on cost+. They're set based on Willingness to Pay. Cost is only used to determine whether a market is viable for a product.

Re: Chromebook is great

[ColdWetDog]

Come now. Anyone with an Internet connection is ALREADY brainwashed vis a vis Google. Except for us curmudgeons, the vast majority of the planet thinks that the Internet IS some unholy amalgamation of Google and Facebook.

Re: Chromebook is great

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a website where you go to google stuff.

Re:Chromebook is great

[Solandri]

Chromebooks lack:

• RAM. About 1-2 GB instead of 4 GB standard (although it's been crawling up).
• Storage. Usually 16 GB of flash, instead of a 128+ GB SSD or 1+ TB HDD.
• A powerful processor. Most are ARM-based, though a few used the Intel Atom line (which Intel recently killed off).
• Windows.

A large part of the higher price of laptops are due to the last two. Based on what ARM SoCs cost (about $5-$15), Intel's markup on its CPUs is several hundred dollars. And we all know what Windows costs. Those two markups come out to about $200-$300. Add in $35 for a HDD and that's pretty much the price difference between Chromebooks and low-end laptops.

So no, laptops aren't marked up. Intel and Microsoft just make out like bandits from each laptop sale (just Intel for Macs).

Re: Chromebook is great

[saloomy]

The comparison should be to iOS tablets, not Mac. And outsold Mac's in units? Dollars? Please. This means nothing. Isolate the Mac business from Apple, and the Chromebook business from Google, which business would you rather own? Apple has yet to release a single Mac with Thunderbolt3, and they JUST released the first MacBook with Skylake. Clearly they are either so focused internally on another big project (like the 10 year anniversary iPhone or project Titan, or their mega-campus), or the macs we are going to see at WWDC2016 are going to be a major refresh for the entire line. If it's the latter, the sales are typical of Apple's sales cycle when a refresh is imminent. Having a small number of options (just as Apple products do) makes consumers very aware of the time in the cycle of their product, so wait for release before buying. You can go buy a recently released Chromebook from SOMEBODY, almost always. There are so many options. Don't get me wrong, Chromebooks are great. They serve a wide market and for those who need a basic computer and would rather have a laptop form factor vs a tablet or iPad, but comparing sales to a Mac is completely irrelevant. Do iPhones outsell Windows? Yes but who cares? It's just as irrelevant when Lenovo sells more 2U servers than Apple do Macs.

Makes Sense

[Anonymous Coward]

If all one needs to do is surf the Web, handle minor photo and video editing, then a Chromebook is ideal. A full-blown Mac is a complete waste of money. I'm in IT and manage everything from email servers to Wi-Fi, and now, thanks to modern computing and VPNs, can do everything from a Chromebook or actually, just any browser.

I like Chromebook because they are simple, inexpensive, and are harbingers of what's to come--namely, all of our comings and goings will be on the Web.

What a strange comparison

[ilsaloving]

So.... Chromebooks are selling like gangbusters to a demographic that is very likely to smash their devices, and it's easier to replace a $200 computer than a $2000 one? Holy crap, stop the presses!

Is it really so hard for Verge to maintain readership, that they need to do ridiculous name drops just to get attention?

Want to know what I *really* want to see? School boards finally realizing that blindly throwing technology at a problem isn't going to result in better outcomes. First iPads, now Chromebooks. They continue to increase the burden of already razor thin IT staff, and I have yet to see one single study indicating that education quality and grades have improved.

Re:What a strange comparison

[Anonymous Coward]

I have spent several years as an IT guy in school districts. Chromebooks make sense for IT for several reasons:

1. Replacing a Chromebook is trivial and inexpensive; there is no loss of data or backup worries.
2. The malware worry is not there.
3. Everything in modern schools is largely Web-based instruction or taught on SMART boards.
4. Kids like them and are already Google savvy.

Re:What a strange comparison

[GezusK]

A neighboring school system, with more money than sense, did go all MacBook Airs. They are now getting rid of them, and going the Chromebook route. Easier to manage, no malware, and cheaper to replace.

We see them as just another tool. No different than a textbook or other material. They provide access to resources. It's still up to the teachers to use the tools they're given in the most effective way.

Re:What a strange comparison

[Solandri]

After all the attempts to include tablets in PC sales figures to bolster Apple's standing, I figure turnabout is fair play. Having helped set up my nephew's Chromebook (sis wanted parental controls), aside from the inability to run generic apps I'd say it's more PC-like than a tablet. The physical keyboard goes a long way, and most people spend their computer time in a browser anyway.

The iPads in education were probably a kickback scam. The Chromebooks actually seem useful. A part of my nephew's homework is found online (I suppose it could be made into an interactive program, but a website allows easier control of distribution and updates). More work for IT, a lot less work for teachers and parents. They cost about 1/3 to 1/2 what an iPad does. And the lack of a store discourages kids from trying to hack it to install Angry Birds. Course they can browse to all sorts of websites (Google needs to improve the parental controls - you can eventually restrict it, but the process isn't trivial), but they can also do that on a tablet's browser.

If you think about it, Chromebooks have more or less accomplished what OLPC set out to do - driven the price of a production computer through the floor so that even people in developing countries could afford one. OLPC's actual production cost was about $490 each. (And please, no ranting about 16 GB of flash being "limiting." My first computer had 32 kB of RAM, my first laptop had a 20 MB HDD. 16 GB is enormous. OLPC only had 4-8 GB of flash storage. A compressed version of Wikipedia is 12 GB.)

Chromebooks are great.

[Anonymous Coward]

They are cheap as hell, last forever on their batteries, and for end-users are effectively immune to malware, adware, and all the other horrible shit that makes your grandmother unable that piece of shit windows laptop. (And it's always a piece of shit windows laptop. What is it about grandmothers and their abilty to buy the very worst laptop ever made?)

And when you have physical access it's easy to put them in developer mode (Which will securely wipe any existing userdata, by design). Then you can get a root shell and install whatever OSS toys you want.

Re:Time to

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

The Mac is not simply a PC. It's a PC with a soldered CPU and soldered RAM, sold at twice the price of an equivalent PC.

Sent from my 2010 Mac mini.