What They Say
Counterpoint said that although Chromebook sales were weak in Q3 2021, as government and education projects finished in the first half of 2021, the firm believes that growth will return next year and will ‘just take a break this year’. Overall, the market for PCs was 84.2 million in Q3 2021, up 9.3% on last year. The drop in Chromebooks hindered the success of HP (6% decline) and Acer (+3% and overtaken by Asus) which are strong in that segment. Apple grew ahead of the market at 11%.
Separately, Digitimes pointed out that Japan had been expected to renew its GIGA school programme in Q4 of this year, but it may have been impacted by Japan’s recent political changes. The US market is expected to be boosted by plans by the FCC to help schools and libraries with facilities for remote learning. Acer told Digitimes that it is seeing growth in sales for commerce and students in higher education,
What We Think
The slowdown in Chromebooks is not surprising and was forecast (Google Chromebook slows, hinting at flagging COVID PC boom). Of course, given the relatively low ASP of Chromebooks, if I was a notebook maker, I’d not be encouraging sales and trying to keep more of my sales in the more premium PC segments. (BR)
