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Google Desktops (Apple)

Chromebooks Outsold Macs Worldwide in 2020, Cutting Into Windows Market Share (geekwire.com) 133

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
New numbers show 2020 was the first year that Chromebooks outsold Macs, posting impressive market share gains at the expense of Windows. From a report: Computers powered by Google's Chrome OS have outsold Apple's computers in individual quarters before, but 2020 was the first full year that Chrome OS took second place. Microsoft's Windows still retained majority market share, but also took a big hit as both Chrome OS and macOS gained share. The milestone is based on numbers provided by IDC, which doesn't typically break out sales based on device operating system. But when we went looking to see how the pandemic may have impacted the PC market, IDC analyst Mike Shirer confirmed the findings to GeekWire. This is a big win for Google and a warning for both Apple and Microsoft. It also signals to app and game developers that Chrome OS can no longer be ignored. Frankly, any business that provides a product or service over the internet should be setting aside resources to ensure the Chrome OS experience is comparable to Windows and macOS.
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Chromebooks Outsold Macs Worldwide in 2020, Cutting Into Windows Market Share More

Chromebooks Outsold Macs Worldwide in 2020, Cutting Into Windows Market Share

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  • The year of the Linux desktop! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:06PM (#61072866)
    Who would of thought this version would take over?

  • Make sure you can install Linux qua Linux (Score:3)

    by MSTCrow5429 ( 642744 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:13PM (#61072884)

    ChromeOS is slightly unstable, in that it will just crash every now and then when while in sleep. Also, Crostini tends to corrupt itself over time, a la Windows 9x, and is limited in abilities compared to an actual Linux install. There's really nothing special about ChomeOS that Linux can't do way better, and just as simply, depending on the distro. Google Docs is still weird and janky, and I wouldn't want all of my documents accessible to Google.

    • "ChromeOS is slightly unstable, in that it will just crash every now and then when while in sleep."

      Sleep doesn't work right? It IS Linux!

    • ChromeOS is slightly unstable, ..."

      So, just like MS Windows then?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by xwin ( 848234 )
        This windows bashing is getting annoying. I run Windows 7, Windows 8 and multiple Windows 10 installations at work and at home. I also run linux in VM and on the servers. I do not remember when last time any of the Windows machines crashed. I do not put linux to sleep so I can't comment there, but my kid uses Chromebook for school and she puts it to sleep all the time. I have never heard her complain. She uses Lenovo Intel based Chromebook. Aside from being on the small side it is a great little machine for

        • This windows bashing is getting annoying. I run Windows 7, Windows 8 and multiple Windows 10 installations at work and at home. I also run linux in VM and on the servers. I do not remember when last time any of the Windows machines crashed.

          Yep. I've been using Microsoft Surfaces since 2013. Windows 8.x and Windows 10. We have four Surfaces in our house at the moment, of varied vintages.

          None of them have ever crashed. Not once.

          • Surface 3 and Surface 5, and surface 7 crashed if you undock and dock with monitors. Otherwise I agree. They're solid since Windows 2000. If it's not been solid, then they're likely using it wrong and/or getting phished and installing malware.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jbengt ( 874751 )

          This windows bashing is getting annoying. I run Windows 7, Windows 8 and multiple Windows 10 installations at work and at home . . . I do not remember when last time any of the Windows machines crashed.

          OK, I've got this.

          My windows 10 crashed last week while using AutoCAD. It was probably AutoCAD that caused the crash, but it was the whole OS that locked up and I couldn't even crtl-alt-del out of it. An application shouldn't be able to do that.
          Also, I've had to disable Windows updates last month, becau

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            In both your cases the problem is likely hardware.

            Start by running a SMART test, the full one that takes hours, on your drives. Then Memtest86+. Those two account for 95% of hardware failures.

            • You might also just have system file corruption which you can try to repair.

              dism /online /cleanup-image /checkhealth
              sfc /scannow

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                On Windows I'd try chkdsk before SFC. Sometimes Windows notices the problem and runs an automatic scan, sometimes it doesn't.

                Freezing is very often a HDD/SSD issue, especially on Windows. I had a drive fail recently (after 10 years of service), mostly worked normally but a few files just cannot be read and cause Windows to lock up until the drive is physically unplugged (hot-plug SATA and USB for the win). Windows would occasionally lock up as app tried to scan the drive for issues, defragment it in the bac

        • wow, talk about a over reaction to a comment made in jest.

          That you have had zero problems with Windows over the years doesn't mean everyone else has had the same luck. The Stability you enjoy is likely due to the environment your systems operate in. I'm betting you set everything up and leave it alone aside from updates. Good for you.

          My dealings and experience with Windows is far from yours and as a result I've seen Window 7 and 10, we skipped 8, crash more times in the last 6 months than the Linux syste

      • If Windows isn't stable for you, then you're doing it wrong. Windows is actually more stable than OS X, and has been since 2000, after Microsoft poached the Borland Devs in the mid-late 90s. Before they started doing monolithic, cumulative patches, if you're actually using it right, you can maintain up to a solid 3 month uptime, while patching every month. You only need a reboot when a kernel level patch is applied. If you don't apply the kernel patches, you can actually keep it running longer, although

    • "There's really nothing special about ChomeOS that Linux can't do way better"

      Basic user drivers: As a developer, I love that I can pipe data between programs and control nearly everything with scripts. Fantastic idea that I never want to get rid of and wish ChromeOS and Windows would embrace more. As a user, I hate that I also have 2 bash scripts to repair my bluetooth sound connection when my headphones get out of range because software like PulseAudio is a PoS even ignoring the problems like proprietary d

      • Not sure what you mean by "core linux." Ubuntu isn't easy to use? I don't see proprietary drivers as an inherent problem.

        • 'Core' Linux referring to one of the many non-proprietary flavors like my Debian workstation:

          I literally have several bash macros that unload and load 'module-bluetooth-discover' in pactl along with pulseaudio-module-bluetooth because none of those systems work reliably and a few times a day, sound just breaks. That's not normal.

          Proprietary drivers? I have a computer with a Ubuntu installation and a Nvidia graphics card. If take the iso image off of the web and install it, that system will not power onto th

          • Surprised having issues with Debian. My impression is that it's very difficult to configure for normies, but that it's rock solid once that gets done. Never used Debian proper though.

            Open-source drivers like Mesa don't work, or they work just without 3D acceleration?

            • My experience with the Nouveau drivers under Ubuntu has been bad enough that I always install the NVIDIA drivers. Haven’t had same experience as GP but have had enough video lockups (display not updating) and odd tearing issues with Nouveau that I don’t bother with it anymore. Perhaps it’s improved but I’d rather not waste time finding out.

  • Compare pear with.. apple.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Lab Rat Jason ( 2495638 )

      Came here to say this... but in another way: It's like comparing sales of Big Macs to sales of Wagyu Beef Tenderloin. The two items cater to completely different tastes and needs. Just sayin'

      • It's like comparing car sales to Macs. There's so little overlap between those two markets that it doesn't matter. That's why the summary is so clunky - they've "overtaken Macs" but they're actually cutting into the sales of Windows.

        • You don't need overlap. If people decided to buy cars instead of Macs then that would very much still be news that they find cars more important than upgrading their Macs. Mind you if that happened that would also be worth of a deeper socio economic study, especially at a time when people are using cars less and laptops more.

  • pandemic school from home (Score:5, Insightful)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:31PM (#61072942)

    Obviously driven by sending all of the kids home for school. This is an anomaly and won't persist after the pandemic is over.

    • Re:pandemic school from home (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Jason Earl ( 1894 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:57PM (#61073018) Homepage Journal

      I wouldn't be too sure. Chromebooks just work, and it is what kids know. My 17 year-old just bought one with her own money. She wanted a Macbook, of course, but when she saw how much more Apple wanted she got an Acer chromebook. Just the other day she was showing off to her older sister, who has a Macbook at something like 5 times the price, some of the cool things that her Chromebook could do that the Macbook couldn't (mostly drawing stuff). Don't get me wrong. She still probably wants a Macbook, but for the money a Chromebook is hard to beat.

      The truly interesting part is that she never even considered a Windows device. She (and all of her friends) hate those things. And who can blame them. Windows is terrible. Careful reading of the article shows that Microsoft is losing marketshare on both the low and high end to Apple and Chrome OS. Unless you use your PC to play games then really anything is better than Windows.

      Obviously that is anecdotal. However, the numbers show that it is increasingly becoming indicative of the new normal. Heck, Google just outsold Apple for an entire year, and 1 in 10 PCs sold was a Chromebook. Yes, it was a wacky year, but it is the sort of trend that could easily accelerate. After all, being "good enough" at a substantially lower price is a proven way to win in the technology sector.

      • I bought my kids mid-range laptops that were maybe 20% more expensive than a high-end Chromebook. They might like to have a Macbook but that won't be happening.

        • I bought my kids mid-range laptops that were maybe 20% more expensive than a high-end Chromebook.

          But now they have to use Windows. Do you also beat them regularly? If not, maybe you should do that instead. It's kinder.

          • What if I told you that the laptops run Mint?

            If they are just choosing icons from the desktop, or bookmarks within the browser, what does the OS really matter?

            • For that use case, wouldn't they have been fine with mid-end chromebooks?

              For most (bud not all) kids, I think giving them a Linux computer is the cruellest option of all. They can't run any of the fun software that their friends with Mac or Windows has.

              • > They can't run any of the fun software

                YouTube, Minecraft, Steam - kids are fine on linux.

                I was never broken because I could only run C=64 and Atari games. My friends had Intellivision, Apple ][ and Colecovision.

                We VISITED and SHARED.

                Oh, the Horror.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        All those kids with Chromebooks are now familiar with the platform and will consider it for future purchases.

        The only thing that might drive them away is lack of software, particularly games.

        For general use they are great. Just work, for real. Cheap. Keyboard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        being "good enough" at a substantially lower price - Is what made Microsoft the 800 pound gorilla of the computer world. While everyone else was struggling to build the perfect OS, the perfect office suite, and the perfect network operating system Gates realized that "good enough" and "available now" really was what people needed. If Peter Norton had been able to turn off his quest for perfection long enough to release a product we might now all be complaining about Commander rather than Windows.

      • except more often then not they DON'T just work. however for the price and the very basic functionality most kids need it is good enough.

  • Schools buy them in bulk (Score:5, Insightful)

    by magzteel ( 5013587 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:31PM (#61072944)

    The sales volume doesn't surprise me. Many school districts buy Chromebooks in bulk and hand them out to students. They are heavily dependent on Google classroom, Google drive, Google docs, etc. These days all the remote learning is over their Chromebooks and the textbooks are all on-line.

    But when school is over and they want to play MineCraft or Sims4 or something they move over to a real desktop or laptop. I personally have no use for a Chromebook.

    • I'd imagine that a lot of parents bought them for their kids. I bought one for my 10-year-old. She didn't need one before, but now that my wife is effectively homeschooling her, the resource was needed. It integrates with her school's Gsuite accounts. It's affordable, simple, and effective for her needs. The fact that it isn't a general purpose computer means there is less to go wrong. As an elementary through middle school homework machine it's a no-brainer.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by swillden ( 191260 )

        I'd imagine that a lot of parents bought them for their kids. I bought one for my 10-year-old. She didn't need one before, but now that my wife is effectively homeschooling her, the resource was needed. It integrates with her school's Gsuite accounts. It's affordable, simple, and effective for her needs. The fact that it isn't a general purpose computer means there is less to go wrong. As an elementary through middle school homework machine it's a no-brainer.

        All four of my kids are in college, and three of the four use Chromebooks for that also. If what you need a computer for is productivity apps, ChromeOS has got the vast majority of users covered. My kids have gaming machines, too, but they're either gigantic laptops you wouldn't want to carry around or desktops. Plus consoles.

        • All four of my kids are in college, and three of the four use Chromebooks for that also.

          Ooooh that's gotta hurt! I have one out of four in college now. She had a Chromebook, but wanted a nice laptop.

          • All four of my kids are in college, and three of the four use Chromebooks for that also.

            Ooooh that's gotta hurt! I have one out of four in college now. She had a Chromebook, but wanted a nice laptop.

            All four have opted to attend my alma mater, which is a local state school, and live at home (well, one doesn't live at home, but his wife is supporting him), so I'm only responsible for tuition, fees and books, and the school isn't too expensive. I mean, it's still $40k per year, but that's for four of them and I could easily be shelling out that much for each of them.

        • I guess they're in some L&S major not associated with STEM, because a chromebook just wouldn't work well in STEM. I have to buy full Windows systems to support the software needed for STEM.

          • I guess they're in some L&S major not associated with STEM, because a chromebook just wouldn't work well in STEM. I have to buy full Windows systems to support the software needed for STEM.

            One is in CS. He uses Crostini to get a Linux environment for writing code.

            As for "STEM" requiring Windows... I'm a professional software engineer and I haven't touched Windows in 20 years.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I wouldn't buy a chromebook for me either, but for schools, they're just a no-brainer. Their limitation is actually a good thing. You don't want kids to play video games during classes, plus schools have total control over what the kid is doing. My only concern was their limited screen size and lack of connectivity until I discovered they worked great with USB-C KVMs, and I could attach a regular screen / keyboard / mouse to the laptop for home use.

      So even if nobody ever buys a chromebook directly, I think

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Quite the opposite in fact, to my surprise. They started crating countless slideshows on any subject they liked, texts, stories in scratch, .. .all that without us looking over their shoulders, which they loved very much.

          So no, I see no reason to believe their creativity is "limited".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Many parents would consider lack of Fortnight a great feature.

  • I wonder how much of people not buying Macs in 2020 was because in that period Apple announced a new architecture, but hardware with it wasn't available for most of the year.

    • Re:Apple released the M1 (Score:5, Informative)

      by MNNorske ( 2651341 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:44PM (#61072994)
      macOS: Up 0.8 points, from 6.7% in 2019 to 7.5% in 2020

      The article doesn't say people weren't buying Macs. It says they were buying more chromebooks and eating into Windows share. I believe the overall market expanded and Chromebooks ate a larger slice of the expanded market and by the looks of it Mac actually increased slightly as well. But, Windows as a portion of the overall market decreased somewhat.

    • I think the new M1 is going to have a great 10 year run. When news makes it to YouTube content creators that you can quickly render videos without killing your battery you will see more that a .8% bump.

  • I am posting from my chromebook right now. It is really fast, and gets great battery life. The only think Chromebooks can't do is play optical disc media, and that is something few do with a computer any more.

  • For example, my wife just does simple web browsing and word processing and has a Google account. We got her a Chromebook and she's happy with it. For her, it just works.

    My youngest was given a district issued Chromebook when he was in 8th grade and used it for the next 3 years. We decided to pay the $50 to purchase it from the district, and he still uses it occasionally, although he now attends a vocational school that issued him a Windows laptop that he uses for schoolwork.

    If it works and doesn't cost a

  • Um, there was a pandemic (Score:3)

    by voidstin ( 51561 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @04:54PM (#61073170)

    ...and every student needed a laptop immediately. the "good" chromebooks were out of stock for most of march and april.

    Inferring any other data point from this seems foolish.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by btroy ( 4122663 )

      ...and every student needed a laptop immediately. the "good" chromebooks were out of stock for most of march and april.

      Inferring any other data point from this seems foolish.

      I agree

  • This was due to the pandemic where schools needed pile of cheap computers for "remote learning".
    When COVID fades so will this trend.

    As a teacher, the shine has really worn off the Google products.
    We have learned that Google Products are very similar to tools from Harbor Freight or Princess Auto.

  • 1. how many were bought by mistake thinking they were getting Windows-10

    2. how many were bought be Linux enthusiasts knowing they can wipe google chrome and install a regular Linux distro on them

    3. how many were bought for single purpose use like school or work from home because of the pandemic lockdown that otherwise would never bought a chromebook
  • Not surprising that parents who suddenly found they needed a laptop for their kids or school districts looking to outfit students bought inexpensive ones. If they get broken, it's probably cheaper to replace than repair; and they do what is needed for at home learning. I leave in an affluent district, but many of my neighbors computer is a work machine, which they can't give up when working form home so they needed a cheap alternative; especially for kids in elementary or middle school. Whaat will be inter

  • This trend is a wonderful one for Google, both in terms of revenues and in terms of reliable data access -- for them. The Chromebook provides an even simpler and more open (for them) channel for all data about your online activity to travel directly to them and feed their advertising machine.

  • I remember they wanted to be online. Also, how are video gaming these days compared to WIndows and Linux (OK, macOS too)?

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