Chromebook Sales Soaring

Google's Chromebook platform is making significant headway within US education, and is emerging as a contender to Apple's dominance of the market, according to new research from Futuresource Consulting. In Q3 2013, Chromebooks accounted for a fifth of all mobile devices shipped into US K-12 education and early indications show this growth continued in the final quarter of the year, accounting for one in every four devices shipped.

Looking back to 2012, Chromebooks made up less than 1% of all devices shipped within the US education market, while Apple products - including iOS and MacOS devices - captured over 50% of sales. Moving into 2013, preliminary figures show Chromebooks have grown to account for almost 20% of all devices shipped within the US over the entire year, with uptake increasing and more hardware providers now offering variations of the platform.

There are a number of factors that are making Chromebooks appeal to educational institutions in the USA. The biggest of these is the cost of the hardware, and the cost of ownership when compared to other solutions.

"Chromebooks present a number of benefits to the education market which go further than just offering cheaper hardware," says Phil Maddocks, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. "While savings can be made on the cost of the hardware alone, the majority of the cost savings originate from within infrastructure and device management. As Chromebooks are cloud-based devices, the security, device management, and even core content creation apps such as Google Docs are run in the cloud, which produces cost reduction on both managing and setting up the devices, as well as some software licensing costs."

One of the other major considerations for education in the USA is the use of mobile computing devices for Common Core Assessments in 2014, with both PARCC and SBAC stipulating the use of a computing device to complete the assessments. As well as this, both PARCC and SBAC have stipulated hardware specifications that devices must adhere to, relating to screen size and the availability of an external keyboard. This has also been a driving force behind the uptake of Chromebooks this year, as every Chromebook device fulfils the minimum specification, while touch-based devices such as iPads and Android-based tablets will require an external keyboard to be used for these assessments.

"Chromebooks are filling an important gap within education," says Kate Russell, Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. "Along with the inherent reduced cost and the ability to accommodate set specifications, Chromebooks allow schools to provide devices that give students a portal to an ever-growing array of content. As well as website-based content, the devices also allow the user to create individual content using a variety of web apps, as well as providing access to 'Google in Education', which caters for both teachers and students at various grade levels."

Looking ahead to 2014, uptake of Chromebooks is likely to increase as several traditional PC manufacturers including Samsung, HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, and Toshiba are all now producing low cost Chromebook devices, with Dell explicitly targeting the education market with their first Chromebook device. While each device features similar hardware specifications, the main differences come in the form of appearance and price, as well as the additional services and support the different hardware manufacturers offer to purchasers. Futuresource expects more hardware providers to launch Chromebooks over the course of 2014, further increasing competition in the market.

"Source: Futuresource Consulting"