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U.S. Tablet Sales Led by iPad in 2013 as Chromebooks Overtake MacBooks
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Yes... crappy Windows laptops are good enough for the price... for some people.
For other people... like MacRumors user gpat and myself... we'd like a little more refinement.
And that's what he said... a wishlist of things Windows laptops could improve on.
Chromebooks have their target, people that only needs mail, browsing and no much else.
When her White Macbook died, my wife started to use the Chromebook Google gave in Google I/O and she has been delaying buying a new laptop because she don't need much else.
When her White Macbook died, my wife started to use the Chromebook Google gave in Google I/O and she has been delaying buying a new laptop because she don't need much else.
Another article on this same topic said the "US commercial channel" is businesses, schools, government and other organizations.
If that's true... it makes the chart a little more believable.
I wish this article would clarify that.
What's surprising here ? The market is flooded with cheap (<150$) android devices that are almost unusable but are sold nonetheless, and Microsoft is selling a quite valid device ...
I still have a problem understanding what "Android vs iPad" means ....
Why they don't speak about iPad Mini vs nexus 7 ? Or Samsung Note 10.1 vs iPad ?
I still have a problem understanding what "Android vs iPad" means ....
Why they don't speak about iPad Mini vs nexus 7 ? Or Samsung Note 10.1 vs iPad ?
I bought a Microsoft Surface from Microcenter during the holidays for $180 (with matching keyboard) and its not that bad of a device. I already have a laptop so I didn't really want one of the Windows 8 "Pro" tablets like the Dell Venue 8 Pro. But I also wanted something a little more "useful" to me then an iPad. We have an iPad already, so I know what they can do.
Anyways for $180, I think the Surface is fantastic. Finally a mobile device that works perfectly with the proxy network at my job. And the keyboard is very handy. And the build quality is very nice.
However at the full price of almost $500 for the Surface 2 plus the keyboard (that's still the RT version, not the x86 version), I don't think it's worth it. The device has a long list of both pro's and con's.
I would not even consider a Chromebook. The price is nice and build quality is good. But I do not like things that require me to be on the Internet. Not every where has Internet. They do offer a 4G/LTE versions, but that is also an issue for me where I live and work.
Anyways for $180, I think the Surface is fantastic. Finally a mobile device that works perfectly with the proxy network at my job. And the keyboard is very handy. And the build quality is very nice.
However at the full price of almost $500 for the Surface 2 plus the keyboard (that's still the RT version, not the x86 version), I don't think it's worth it. The device has a long list of both pro's and con's.
I would not even consider a Chromebook. The price is nice and build quality is good. But I do not like things that require me to be on the Internet. Not every where has Internet. They do offer a 4G/LTE versions, but that is also an issue for me where I live and work.
I really wanted to believe the hype...
I bought one and returned mine. The keyboard felt squishy to me. Keeping the low price in mind, I tried to be forgiving, but man it's just didn't feel like $200 well spent. I do think you get what you pay for. Mine had had a flimsy screen, felt plasticky, and the trackpad is nowhere near as good as a MacBooks. Some positive notes: battery life was very good, the SSD boots fast, and the search button is cool. Personally I don't think this is a good buy for most people. If you're only going to buy one general purpose computer and you're on an extremely limited budget, then you'd be better off with a cheap windows laptop. If you have the disposable income to buy multiple computers, chromebooks are probably good options to consider. Just not for me though.
I bought one and returned mine. The keyboard felt squishy to me. Keeping the low price in mind, I tried to be forgiving, but man it's just didn't feel like $200 well spent. I do think you get what you pay for. Mine had had a flimsy screen, felt plasticky, and the trackpad is nowhere near as good as a MacBooks. Some positive notes: battery life was very good, the SSD boots fast, and the search button is cool. Personally I don't think this is a good buy for most people. If you're only going to buy one general purpose computer and you're on an extremely limited budget, then you'd be better off with a cheap windows laptop. If you have the disposable income to buy multiple computers, chromebooks are probably good options to consider. Just not for me though.
My friends asked me what laptop to get their daughter, a Mac or Windows? I said, frankly I don't care for the way either of them are going, why don't you look at a Chromebook. They got her one, it suits her needs and she loves it.
Despite the fact I have half a dozen Mac laptops (two are dead, I keep them for sentimental reasons), there's no reason one has to have a Mac. If I just needed e-mail, a word processor, a spreadsheet and a browser, I can't think of why I'd want to spend an extra $1000 or so.
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How may cores do you need to update a facebook page?
Despite the fact I have half a dozen Mac laptops (two are dead, I keep them for sentimental reasons), there's no reason one has to have a Mac. If I just needed e-mail, a word processor, a spreadsheet and a browser, I can't think of why I'd want to spend an extra $1000 or so.
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You're describing a lot of people.
How may cores do you need to update a facebook page?
I think that tablets - including the iPad - are also overpriced and useless toys. And I don't see where OS X is more advanced than the competition. I like OS X, but it's not in any regard more advanced or better than Linux, FreeBSD or Windows. That's just marketing nonsense.
The problem isn't making such a device, it's selling it. There probably are PC laptops that meet your specifications but they have no market traction because sales and purchase advice is dominated by people who look just at the specs and do not know how to put value on the touchy-feely things like better trackpads and keyboards. The low sales volumes that ensue in such a market cause the runs to be low and the costs to rise, thus the devices get laughed off by nerds as overpriced. Just like Macs, but with Macs there is at least a major product differentiator in the OS. There's no getting around the problem that an expensive Windows PC probably has at least 95% of the same user experience as a mid-price one.
I also work at a university in England and I see approximately 50-50 OS X-Windows devices. Never, ever, seen a ChromeBook out 'in the wild'.
Also, on tablets it is really iOS dominated here, with about 80% iOS, 20% 'other' I would say (lots of Kindles)
Admittedly this is purely anecdotal but, taking it in with what the rest of you are saying, I'm not sure what to make of this!
Obviously ChromeBooks are far cheaper and that is why they sell bucket loads by comparison, but are people actually using them?
Also, on tablets it is really iOS dominated here, with about 80% iOS, 20% 'other' I would say (lots of Kindles)
Admittedly this is purely anecdotal but, taking it in with what the rest of you are saying, I'm not sure what to make of this!
Obviously ChromeBooks are far cheaper and that is why they sell bucket loads by comparison, but are people actually using them?
Wait so this is basically saying sellers bought the chromebooks, but how many consumers actually bought them?
You know what I mean. Like if one guy hits 40 homers, and two other guys both hit 37 - they are tied for second (and the next guy below them is fourth, not third).
And since I said "a quarter or so", it's quite possible to have two other devices tied at a lesser share. For instance (just making up numbers now since I don't want to go find the survey results):
1) Surface - 27%
t2) iOS - 21%
t2) Android - 21%
Right there, that's only 69%... so it's indeed quite "mathematically possible".
I question the numbers
The Apple notebook share of 1.8% is too low. Also, the drop for Apple notebooks from 2.6% to 1.8% is huge. Mac sales were down 7% Y/Y, not 30%.
Someone is cooking the books or simply not counting sales through Apple Stores or store.apple.com
The Apple notebook share of 1.8% is too low. Also, the drop for Apple notebooks from 2.6% to 1.8% is huge. Mac sales were down 7% Y/Y, not 30%.
Someone is cooking the books or simply not counting sales through Apple Stores or store.apple.com
Way more than 0 I stood behind a older couple in a shop taking there's back and had to intervene when the shop assistant said you can do everything with a chrome book they you can with a PC.
I made them give the money back and took the couple to a better shop and got them a usable PC ( they didn't have apple money and had lots of PC software )
A question: Doesn't the Chromebook require wi-fi?
I realize that virtually every home has wi-fi while more and more public places have wi-fi access but it still limits it's use.
It seems that the choice for this group is an iPad vs Chromebook. You certainly don't need both. I would suspect that an iPad is more useful without wi-fi because of it's on board apps. However, I don't really know much about Chromebooks. Does it have on board apps that can be used without wi-fi?
How are Samsung or Acer making money off of these? Will they last very long if you take them out "into the wild" as described here?
I realize that virtually every home has wi-fi while more and more public places have wi-fi access but it still limits it's use.
It seems that the choice for this group is an iPad vs Chromebook. You certainly don't need both. I would suspect that an iPad is more useful without wi-fi because of it's on board apps. However, I don't really know much about Chromebooks. Does it have on board apps that can be used without wi-fi?
How are Samsung or Acer making money off of these? Will they last very long if you take them out "into the wild" as described here?
Well it's better than Linux, FreeBSD if only because of available software, built in and third party. Personally I prefer osx as it's always more stable than windows, BUT, that is generally fault of third party software.
Time machine is still a great sell for me and has saved me on a number of occasions. Surprised there are no decent windows clones of it
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I've just realised what this article is...
Commercial sales to third party retailers... So wouldn't take into account online apple or Apple stores...!!!!
Of course it's not going to look that big! Why would you buy from a retailer rather than apple direct unless there was a biiig discount.
To all of you who are having doubts about the numbers of chromebooks sold, just check the Amazon.com top sellers in the laptop category. It may help.
Are they competitors to my i7 MacBook Pro?
They have their place and sell more units because they are cheaper than my i7 MBP (surprise surprise... mine has a 500gb SSD, 16GB RAM, an i7 and a dedicated GPU).
I'd prefer to see the raw number of sales. Have MBP/Air sales gone down or are they being compared with $200 POS cr@pt0ps with Atoms/Celerons and the lack of a rich OS (requiring an internet connection... fun fun).
Fandroids seem to have taken over these forums so I'm giving up on battling them. My point though... is an i7 laptop with OS X comparable to an Atom/Celeron based tablet requiring an internet connection that sits in a laptop case? I argue they are two different categories of machines and chromebooks should be in the sub-notebook category because their price/sales largely come down to their lack of grunt/features.
This Chromebook boom reminds me a lot of the netbook boom. Only one reason why people buy them: price, price, price. They think they bought a fully capable laptop computer. Later they realize it is a pretty useless Linux PC and suddenly the market collapses again.
The PC market isn't dead yet. People don't see tablets as their only computing device, they still want something with a keyboard to do old-fashioned PC stuff (scanning, typing stuff, printing). And many are just scared by the totally different UI of tablets and want something familiar.
As for businesses, I don't think a single business bought a Chromebook.
The PC market isn't dead yet. People don't see tablets as their only computing device, they still want something with a keyboard to do old-fashioned PC stuff (scanning, typing stuff, printing). And many are just scared by the totally different UI of tablets and want something familiar.
As for businesses, I don't think a single business bought a Chromebook.
I never, NEVER get tired of this photo. Laughing hysterically as I type this
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Er, no. Sorry, fully disagree.
Just the other day I had to reinstall Windows 8 on my Bootcamp partition. And oddly because I'm using an upgrade license key, I always have to install Windows twice over to get it to activate properly. What ensued next was what seemed like an endless cycle of updating and restarting of over 75 updates, not including upgrading to Windows 8.1, which lasted nearly as long as reinstalling the entire OS. This whole ordeal of getting Windows back to working condition lasted me almost a day's worth of my time. Granted I was not in front of my computer the entire time but it easily equated to several hours.
Meanwhile, I can log in my Apple ID to the Mac App store and download and install the latest version of Mavericks (10.9.1) in one fell swoop in about half an hour. No licensee keys. No activation BS. I absolutely love it.
How inefficient and time consuming of an OS Windows is (in terms of upkeep) makes me loathe Windows with a fiery passion.
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