Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
IDC: Chromebooks Outsold Macs for the First Time in 2020
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I work in IT for a school system. I am a diehard Apple user. I challenged myself and used only a Chromebook for two weeks. Discounting these devices is a huge mistake on Apple's part. It became very clear to me that I was able to do everything I needed to do on that Chromebook because everything is web-based now. Yes, we have Chromebooks in almost every student's hands now. Google has made an incredible ecosystem around Chrome. You may not like Google, but they have done a good job here and the OS keeps getting better. Chrome OS has a much better chance of overthrowing Windows as the market leader than macOS. Apple should have placed a greater focus on Safari and getting developers to write extensions for it. I know they are making efforts in that direction now, but it may be too little too late. If Apple developed at "Safari Book" that could run iOS apps the way Chromebooks can run Android apps (and put together a functional enterprise setup) they could annihilate Google. That is of course if they were willing to compete on price.
What? The market for a chromebook is NOT even remotely close to the same market for a Macbook Pro 16.
Those
"poor souls" are families trying to educate their kids virtually in the middle of a pandemic, who don't give a damn about M1 "goodness".
Here in Greece, where there is no official Apple store or even option to buy from Apple site and only authorized dealers, the M1 Macbook Air with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD is priced at 2067 Euros.
I don't care for chromebooks, but FFS!
I don't care for chromebooks, but FFS!
I've seen on Twitter, TikTok and other social media posts where people who bought Chromebooks regretting they bought a Chromebook.
Chromebook is glorified thin client in the nutshell. Some model even sports high end core i7 processor and large SSD, hecks what that computing power used for since everything is done in server and offline work mostly just cached data to be send when connected to internet.
Don't discount the fact that Chromebooks can run Linux pretty well and if you stay on the ChromeOS side you don't need antivirus software which is huge for IT departments. One can run development tools like IntelliJ or editing apps like GIMP on them pretty confidently, so yeah, Apple does underestimate the threat. They can run Android apps, too.
I've used Chromebooks. They will do what most people need to do very well. Also, there is almost zero learning curve. They "just work"
The user interface is MUCH better than Windows and as good as MacOS. They are based on Linux while the Mac runs a BSD UNIX kernel. About the same thing, really.
The reason to buy a Mac rather than a Chromebook is if you run any specialized apps like say Final Cut or the Adobe suite or if you must run a specific version of MS Office. But VERY few people need this. For the majority, the Chromebook is ideal, especially when you consider the price.
Apple was a "price problem" when you get to notebooks larger than 13 inches but you can buy a larger Chromebook for under $500.
The user interface is MUCH better than Windows and as good as MacOS. They are based on Linux while the Mac runs a BSD UNIX kernel. About the same thing, really.
The reason to buy a Mac rather than a Chromebook is if you run any specialized apps like say Final Cut or the Adobe suite or if you must run a specific version of MS Office. But VERY few people need this. For the majority, the Chromebook is ideal, especially when you consider the price.
Apple was a "price problem" when you get to notebooks larger than 13 inches but you can buy a larger Chromebook for under $500.
As an all-Mac family of four, our two elementary school-aged children were issued Chromebooks for remote learning for the majority of 2020. Total. Pieces. Of junk. But... The remote learning that the pandemic forced is likely why we see these Chromebook numbers. Teachers and education in America are already embarrassingly underfunded/valued. What school district can supply their students/staff with iPads? Very, very few. Plus, what a Chromebook can offer is totally fine for 99.9% of students/teachers and - most importantly - the price point is THE deal breaker for school districts. Period. The end. And price is something in which Apple has never shown interest in competing. So as much as I loathe Google, I get why this specific data favors them.
For me, this touches on a larger gripe I have with Apple... There is a whole slew of youth whose first, measurable, independent computer using experience is Google-based. They are cutting their tech teeth on Google. Forming tech preferences based on "the Google way." It's no stretch to fast forward to when they are making their own tech decisions/purchases... Are they more likely to go with what they know for a better entry-level price point, or spend more on something that's new and unfamiliar? If history is any indicator, people tend to stick with what they know. There are outliers, of course.
Apple's half-assed attempts at making inroads into the education sector has been most unfortunate. In my mind, one of their biggest misses. I mean, sure - Apple's doing fine, obviously. But as an investor, as a parent of young children, I sure would like to see them make a real play at addressing the needs of these newest tech users. Todays iPad user is tomorrow's APPL investor.
For me, this touches on a larger gripe I have with Apple... There is a whole slew of youth whose first, measurable, independent computer using experience is Google-based. They are cutting their tech teeth on Google. Forming tech preferences based on "the Google way." It's no stretch to fast forward to when they are making their own tech decisions/purchases... Are they more likely to go with what they know for a better entry-level price point, or spend more on something that's new and unfamiliar? If history is any indicator, people tend to stick with what they know. There are outliers, of course.
Apple's half-assed attempts at making inroads into the education sector has been most unfortunate. In my mind, one of their biggest misses. I mean, sure - Apple's doing fine, obviously. But as an investor, as a parent of young children, I sure would like to see them make a real play at addressing the needs of these newest tech users. Todays iPad user is tomorrow's APPL investor.
And to feed Google all the information they starve for, so they can profile the user and sell their valuable privacy info.
No. If I run a web app, it is written in javascript and being interpreted inside the browser. It is NOT a remote desktop. There is a huge difference between the two systems.
Also the Chromebook is really just a Linux PC. They are great for people who really understand computers r software developers as you can get "used" the browsers layer and run just about anything on it, well "anything" that would run on Linux.
Apple didn’t discount them, Apple HAS a system perfectly aligned to the same web-based use case. It’s iOS and iPadOS. I’d like to see iPads graphed on that chart
OR, they could develop an iPad that runs iPadOS apps?
Really though, Google wants access to the data from all those users and are practically giving away the hardware and software required to integrate them (AND the required support). That’s how valuable that data is to Google. No other company has the same kind of financial incentives to move into the education market. So, it’s not going to be profitable for any company that’s focused on making a profit on the sales and services, to go into the education market.
My wife asked me to buy a couple of Chromebooks for my kids to use at home since they're virtual students. I did and was very unimpressed with them. They work fine for schoolwork, checking Facebook, and watching BTS videos on YouTube, but IMO, comparing a Chromebook to a Mac laptop is akin to comparing two tin cans connected by a piece of string to a telephone.
New data shows that Chromebook laptops outsold Mac computers for the first time over the course of a full year in 2020, a year largely driven by commercial demand for lightweight, powerful, and affordable personal computers. The data from IDC (via GeekWire) shows that Windows continues to dominate the market, although its share declined over the course of the year as Chrome OS surged past macOS into second place.
For the full year, the market share of Windows was down 4.9% in 2020 compared to 2019, while the Mac grew from 6.7% to 7.5%. IDC's data includes collective information about desktops, laptops, and workstations, and doesn't provide a breakdown of specific different product types. It is worth noting, however, that Chrome OS includes products made by Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo.
Demand for personal computers skyrocketed during 2020, largely thanks to the shift to working and learning at home. Market data estimates that in Q4 of 2020, the Mac grew by around 30% compared to the same quarter the previous year. In comparison to other makers, Apple had the most significant year-over-year growth in the quarter.
In addition to market shifts due to changes in work and school patterns, the fourth quarter of 2020 notably also saw Apple launched its first Apple silicon Macs, which have been very well received.
Article Link: IDC: Chromebooks Outsold Macs for the First Time in 2020
I suspect that after the buyers discover how limiting Chromebooks are, they'll reconsider their decision. When the pandemic was declared, the college where I worked handed out Chromebooks to students so they could do their work remotely. But in my program (Electronic Media), they were useless since students couldn't install the necessary apps. I guess if all you need to do is to use the Internet and simple office apps, they can work out okay.
Makes sense, due to additional computers being purchased for remote learning. We had to buy 2 chrome books because the first pos broke and we had to replace it. I tried having my kid use an iPad but it could only do about 80% of what was needed effectively so we had to go with the chromebooks.
Are we factoring in iPads here. I think iPads and chrome books are the same. You really can't compare the chrome book to even a MacBook Air.
Are these US only data? I live in Europe, and never ever saw anyone use a chromebook, and a quick search brings up one store in the whole country where they sell them. And based on their prices I don't get the hype, one can get a basic Wintel noetbook for their price.
Schools here deploy iPads. Dunno of anyone using Chromebooks.
Who puts chromebooks in the laptop classification anyway? Aren't they just a terminal?
Who puts chromebooks in the laptop classification anyway? Aren't they just a terminal?
For educational needs, remote learning Chromebooks are fine. Until a certain age you won't need anything more. Something like an Apple laptop is just overkill, in terms of performance and price.
Chromebooks have hit the spot for functionality and price.
What about iPads? They can be more expensive, and overkill.
iPad UI for Google classrooms is just awkward. Chromebooks are still more suited. YMMV.
If you just need a laptop for emailing, word processing, browsing etc etc, Chromebooks are still great devices.
Chromebooks have hit the spot for functionality and price.
What about iPads? They can be more expensive, and overkill.
iPad UI for Google classrooms is just awkward. Chromebooks are still more suited. YMMV.
If you just need a laptop for emailing, word processing, browsing etc etc, Chromebooks are still great devices.
actually not true.
Ford doesn't sell cars anymore. It's trucks and mustangs (which are their own brand)
If computers are silverware Chromebooks are plastic fast food forks, Macs are fine silver. Fast food throw away plastic forks are always going to outsell fine silver utensils. Ok, now that I'm typing this the Windows PC is the fork, the Chromebook is a spork. Yeah, that seems more fitting.