What They Say
Digitimes Research said that there was no sign of weakening in the demand for Chromebooks at the moment as demand from the global education sector remains robust. Sales volumes reached 30.4 million in 2020 and growth of 15% – 18% is expected this year to bring the total to 35-36 million with all brands growing.
Acer, citing figures from GFK, pointed out that one of its Chromebook models became the bestseller in 12 European countries in January and the company also acquired a 78% share in France’s Chromebook market. In Northern Europe, Acer’s shipments also accounted for 45% of local Chromebook volumes due to the strong stay-at-home economy in the region amid the coronavirus pandemic, the company told the researcher.
Asia has also become a major growth driver for Chromebook shipments especially with the launch of Japan’s Giga School project. Japan’s Chromebook shipments picked up from only 95,000 units in 2018 to 245,000 in 2019 and 1.815 million units in 2020 according to unidentified researchers.
What We Think
It has taken a while for the full potential of Chromebooks to become apparent. Samsung and Acer were the first to get on-board with Google back in 2011, when Google opened an R&D Centre in Taiwan for the project. These two were joined by Asustek, Compal and Quanta. As early as 2012, Google said that it saw the OS as different from Android, which it was then using for tablets and smartphones. Lenovo got into the act in 2013. (BR)
Lenovo’s ThinkPad X131e – its first Chromebook
