Credit: Dreamstime
The global Chromebook market reached all-time highs over the last year, with shipments doubling over the previous calendar year.
According to research firm Canalys, sales nearly quadrupled over the last three months compared to the same quarter a year ago, rising by a whopping 287 per cent to 11.2 million devices. Indeed, more than a third of all devices shipped during the year were sold in the last quarter. During the entire year, 30.6 million units were shipped, an increase of 109 per cent, year-over-year.
HP was the top vendor for the year and the quarter, with shipments increasing by 83 per cent to 9.4 million devices, and 235 per cent to 3.5 million devices, respectively.
However, Lenovo encountered a strong boost during the last quarter, with 2.8 million units shipped — representing a mammoth 1,766 per cent rise for the vendor. It also came in second place for yearly shipments, with a comparatively subdued 287 per cent. Its growth in the Chromebook space follows its stellar third quarter for the global PC market.
The demand for the devices is primarily for educational purposes, according to Canalys research director Rushabh Doshi, but its appeal is widening outside of this scope.
“Demand for Chromebooks is through the roof,” he said. “With many countries being forced to accelerate their digital education plans in the wake of additional lockdowns, schools and universities are clamouring for easy to deploy solutions and Google’s digital offerings for education are proving quite popular over rival platforms, especially in the US and Western Europe.
“With governments in many countries racing towards a much needed 1:1 device to student ratio, Chromebook demand for education is expected to remain strong through 2021.
“Outside education, there has also been mounting interest from consumers and traditional commercial customers in seeking out Chromebooks to ensure affordable continuity of business or personal computing.”
