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U.S. Tablet Sales Led by iPad in 2013 as Chromebooks Overtake MacBooks
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Exactly. Like me, I'd probably never buy a Chromebook myself, and my iPad with a keyboard in front of it (which is arguably a little more flexible) works perfectly as my 'lil supplementary device. I've toyed with buying one before, but...eh. It'd be $300 spent for something kinda redundant.
But that's not to say I think they're entirely worthless. They're just not for me. For someone who's computing needs are based 99.9% around the internet, they'll work perfectly. And for the price, they're hard to argue against. I can think of at least a couple of people among all my friends and family who'd love one.
Definitely agreed there's not a one-size-fits-all device and hopefully I didn't come across as making a statement that my favorite device would be that device if such a device existed.
Nah. I wasn't talking about you specifically when I said that. I just used you as a launching point for a mini-rant.
Did you read the heading of the chart? It says "US Commercial Channel"
In other words... sales to businesses, government, education and other organizations.
That chart does NOT represent US consumers.
I just can't see myself totally dependent on Google for a device that's half a laptop. It's like Jack of some trades for $300 no thank you.
Come on man! We're 24 pages into this thread, don't ruin the fun and make people realize what the article is actually about.
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You copied my avatar.
Come on man! We're 24 pages into this thread, don't ruin the fun and make people realize what the article is actually about.
The funny thing is... I said this on page one... post #13
And elsewhere throughout the thread.
Actually I am. I'm a HUGE fan of Apple. Sometimes Apple fans are a bit ridiculous. Like the poster who posted that photo of Tim laughing.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
agree - what i meant is that I'm happy with google for my nexus and gmail, but love my iPhone macs and iCloud. Would never become totally dependent on google - frightening thought!
Still not a fan of the chrome book.
i'm a MBP owner for several years, and very happy
Hey, you haven't watched 'The Internship'. Google *is* paradise
Great post!
You would't see the bigger picture here even if it jumps up and bit you in your rear.
My god, are people so naive these days?
Oh wait, I don't have a link for that...
Where did you get that from? I can't find any definition of what the US Commercial Channel includes.
For all supported remote apps such as Play store content, Netflix and YouTube it plays direct on the Chromecast so no trouble there. For when it has to render a HD video from a Chrome tab using the cast extension, it is able to do it but not without a bit of struggling. I'm told that is mostly a non issue on the new Haswell Chromebooks. Battery life is about 3 to 3:30 hrs. This too I'm told is lot better with Haswell.
Bought the kid an Acer 720 that has the Haswell chip. He is getting an easy 6+ hours of battery life. It also has no problem with HD video from a Chrome tab.
The word "commercial" is the biggest clue. They're definitely not talking about consumers if they used that word.
Just like "commercial" automobile sales refer to purchases by businesses and rental fleets or work trucks for industrial applications... those aren't the same numbers as the consumer automobile market.
Think of it like the difference between "consumer" and "enterprise"... those are different markets that are each measured accordingly. So I don't think the "commercial" market would describe consumer sales either.
Here's how I came to that conclusion:
"Chromebooks' holiday success at Amazon was duplicated elsewhere during the year, according to the NPD Group, which tracked U.S. PC sales to commercial buyers such as businesses, schools, government and other organizations."
"The market for personal computing devices in commercial markets continues to shift and change, said Baker. "It is no accident that we are seeing the fruits of this change in the commercial markets as business and institutional buyers exploit the flexibility inherent in the new range of choices now open to them." - Stephen Baker of NPD
- Link
Those don't sound like consumer retail sales to me. I've never heard consumer sales described as "commercial"
Hey, you haven't watched 'The Internship'. Google *is* paradise
Great post!
Actually, I did see it which is where the jungle gym and nap comments came from.
I'm sure it's a fun place to work, but that doesn't mean I'd rather have them spying on me than the NSA. At least the NSA is supposedly trying to stop terrorism. Google is just trying to make money off of you. But give them enough time and power and they could be the biggest lobby in the nation and have some truly scary power over government officials (i.e. they are monitoring their computers as well). Yeah, it's anonymous tracking...but will it always be that way? Data mining is still listed as malware/spyware in most anti-malware programs and Google is getting ever more creative about how them do it. But hey, you get a cheap notebook out of the deal and it runs all kinds of Google market software that you buy from Google and put more money into Google and then when your Cloud storage expires (the darn things only come with 16GB of space!) so does all your data on your device unless you start shelling out $10+ a month. And why have high speed 600-800MB/sec high capacity storage on a notebook when you can go at 1-2.5 MB/sec to the Cloud? What? Lost your Net connection on an airplane, in a tunnel or just walking in a high interference area? I guess that file won't finish uploading to the cloud and as M$ would say, YOU'RE SCROOGLED!!!....
Actually, I did see it which is where the jungle gym and nap comments came from.
I'm sure it's a fun place to work, but that doesn't mean I'd rather have them spying on me than the NSA. At least the NSA is supposedly trying to stop terrorism. Google is just trying to make money off of you. But give them enough time and power and they could be the biggest lobby in the nation and have some truly scary power over government officials (i.e. they are monitoring their computers as well). Yeah, it's anonymous tracking...but will it always be that way? Data mining is still listed as malware/spyware in most anti-malware programs and Google is getting ever more creative about how them do it. But hey, you get a cheap notebook out of the deal and it runs all kinds of Google market software that you buy from Google and put more money into Google and then when your Cloud storage expires (the darn things only come with 16GB of space!) so does all your data on your device unless you start shelling out $10+ a month. And why have high speed 600-800MB/sec high capacity storage on a notebook when you can go at 1-2.5 MB/sec to the Cloud? What? Lost your Net connection on an airplane, in a tunnel or just walking in a high interference area? I guess that file won't finish uploading to the cloud and as M$ would say, YOU'RE SCROOGLED!!!....
I agree with most of your comment except the part about having to pay for cloud storage... I think ChromeBooks are designed to be used for only two years and then be replaced and you'll get another two years of free cloud storage.
Actually, I typed my reply on my iPad mini.
I'm not sure where you got the notion that Mac users are noble. I simply observed that cheap outsells well-made anything. There is a reason people shop at Walmart, in spite of the abuse of their workers.
Anyway, back to the topic Amazon or Samsung by itself can't beat the respective apple product they're competing against. They are, however, leading the combined force of android products; this allows android to beat iOS. This is why I compared android to a pack of individually insignificant dogs; when combined, they become a force to be reckoned with.
I'm not sure where you got the notion that Mac users are noble. I simply observed that cheap outsells well-made anything. There is a reason people shop at Walmart, in spite of the abuse of their workers.
Anyway, back to the topic Amazon or Samsung by itself can't beat the respective apple product they're competing against. They are, however, leading the combined force of android products; this allows android to beat iOS. This is why I compared android to a pack of individually insignificant dogs; when combined, they become a force to be reckoned with.
English is not my first language so I won't argue with you but I've seen this expression used more than once (e.g. "Windows 7 is 5 times cheaper to manage than 11-year-old Windows XP").
What bigger picture? He has made a very specific claim, that Google doesn't publish all the source code of Android.
Perhaps are other that wouldn't see reality if it jumps up and bit them in the rear.
It's always fun to see all the "not right for me = not right for anyone" comments.
Both of my kids have one. The middle schooler uses it for her homework. The younger one uses it to play Club Penguin and other web games and watches movies on it. I got one on sale for $199 and the other refurbed for $144. One daughter dropped her iPhone on hers and broke the screen - and it cost me $51 and 15 minutes with a single screwdriver to fix it.
When we go on vacation, we take a Chromebook, not one of the Macs. If it gets lost or stolen, the replacement cost is much less, and since any created content is backed up constantly (or as soon as it's within WiFi range), nothing is ever really lost.
Chromebooks (or at least many of them) have USB 3 ports, SD card slots, on-board storage of at least 16GB (more than enough for a flight's worth of media), tons of Google Drive storage for the first 2 years, decent trackpads, and so on. They are always up to date.
Chromebooks make, for most people, terrible sole computers - printing won't work in most cases without another computer connected to the printer, only web-accessible apps run on them, and so on. But they make absolutely fantastic secondary computers. They're great for kids - inexpensive, more than adequate, always backed up - and as a computer to just use to surf or do other web activity.
People who buy them expecting Windows or OS X will be disappointed. People who buy them knowing what they are like them.
Both of my kids have one. The middle schooler uses it for her homework. The younger one uses it to play Club Penguin and other web games and watches movies on it. I got one on sale for $199 and the other refurbed for $144. One daughter dropped her iPhone on hers and broke the screen - and it cost me $51 and 15 minutes with a single screwdriver to fix it.
When we go on vacation, we take a Chromebook, not one of the Macs. If it gets lost or stolen, the replacement cost is much less, and since any created content is backed up constantly (or as soon as it's within WiFi range), nothing is ever really lost.
Chromebooks (or at least many of them) have USB 3 ports, SD card slots, on-board storage of at least 16GB (more than enough for a flight's worth of media), tons of Google Drive storage for the first 2 years, decent trackpads, and so on. They are always up to date.
Chromebooks make, for most people, terrible sole computers - printing won't work in most cases without another computer connected to the printer, only web-accessible apps run on them, and so on. But they make absolutely fantastic secondary computers. They're great for kids - inexpensive, more than adequate, always backed up - and as a computer to just use to surf or do other web activity.
People who buy them expecting Windows or OS X will be disappointed. People who buy them knowing what they are like them.
Questions
jsw, may I ask you a question please? A few friends asked me about Chromebook. They want a computer for basic tasks, email, web etc. They never owned a computer and want to keep cost to a minimum. Do you think a Chromebook would be a consideration for them?
The reason they ask me is that I have no tech issues. I use mainly Apple stuff. Not comparing Chromebook to Mac. They don't want to spend Mac $$. Do you think Chromebook may be worth considering for them?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
jsw, may I ask you a question please? A few friends asked me about Chromebook. They want a computer for basic tasks, email, web etc. They never owned a computer and want to keep cost to a minimum. Do you think a Chromebook would be a consideration for them?
The reason they ask me is that I have no tech issues. I use mainly Apple stuff. Not comparing Chromebook to Mac. They don't want to spend Mac $$. Do you think Chromebook may be worth considering for them?
Thanks for any help you can offer.