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U.S. Tablet Sales Led by iPad in 2013 as Chromebooks Overtake MacBooks
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Netbooks sold well, despite not actually working.
Chromebooks could sell just as well, for those with minimal needs. They may not be happy and buy something better next time. And I imagine, corporate buyers would be glad to force brain-dead Chromebooks on powerless employees.
It's the dependence on google, for everything, that should be bothering home and corporate customers. Trading apparently inexpensive services for giving google access to your data, should be an increasingly uncomfortable and untenable position.
Given the lack of visibility of Chromebooks, the sales figures quoted seem doubtful. I've written in the past about these surveys being a shake-down of Apple for more advertising, by publishing company owned survey firms. You can see how this report plays up the significance of Surface, despite it looking to be a bigger loss this year than last year for Microsoft.
It's the Android story all over again. (Android in the class of iPhone sell 1/3 the numbers of iPhone, but these surveys have Android at double iPhone sales.) More BS designed to promote poorly designed products at the expense of better value Apple products. Direct naive customers into the junk end of the market, to support the most desperate advertisers.
Edit: Thanks to the NoAgenda Show for the link pointing out the fraction of the sales market used for this survey. B2B sales.
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Really? I can turn on hotspots on both my Verizon iPad and my Verizon Q10. It just uses data. I've had this feature on Verizon since I got my iPad 3, which was soon after it was launched. So I think that is over two years now. AT&T used to charge $20 per month if you wanted to be able to hotspot.
I believe that Verizon has to enable hot spot use for it's LTE phones. It was part of the agreement with the FCC when they won the bid for the spectrum.
This question came up and was answered with a settlement with the FCC:
- If you are on a tiered data plan, then you can use a third party tethering app on LTE for free, since the data all comes out of your limited data bucket anyway.
- If for some reason (like more data) you decide to use Verizon's hot spot (tethering) app, then you still pay an extra fee for that.
- And the big gotcha: if you are still grandfathered in on Verizon's old Unlimited Data plan (like I am), then you are still contractually prohibited from enabling tethering, unless you pay extra.
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I would think they would be taking away sales of iPads more than anything else. It's similarly functional in some respects at least and the only thing remotely in the same price range. Apple could easily make an iPad with an attachable keyboard and pit directly against this thing (make it one generation back and even the price wouldn't be terribly far off). Call it a Padbook or AppBook or something equally stupid to Chromebook and off you go. I'm firmly convinced the ONLY reason this thing is selling in such massive numbers is the dirt cheap price. These articles are comparing what is basically a PAD type device in disguise to NOTEBOOKS despite the total lack of functionality of a notebook. It just LOOKS like a notebook. Yeah, you could stick Ubuntu on there or something but then you have no commercial software once again so WTF is the point?
It's OK to dislike Google, but many posts reveal a large number of people that fear Google as though they feel seriously threatened.
Their are far more nefarious business practices being executed 24/7_365, by the Insurance Industry and Big Data companies. Long before Google, Microsoft, and yes...Apple began collecting, retaining and using our information, these other companies destroyed any remains of privacy.
Chromebooks? It's obvious one reason they get bashed is simply the idea that Google created these laptop form factor machines that are not much different than the "Thin Client" computers of the past. Being Internet centric, they're highly useful for their very specific, limited, usage model.
However to compare them to anything Apple, like MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models is pure lunacy. Those who buy into such crazy irrelevant comparisons, either enjoy arguing, or do it because they can.
Me?
My exemplary 2012 MacBook Pro is the tool I make my living with. In my field of work I must have a resource laden, fast and reliable computer. Doing scientific, fluid dynamics computational work ups is not what a Chromebook is for, nor do I expect it to be.
Each has their purpose and choices are what I celebrate.
Their are far more nefarious business practices being executed 24/7_365, by the Insurance Industry and Big Data companies. Long before Google, Microsoft, and yes...Apple began collecting, retaining and using our information, these other companies destroyed any remains of privacy.
Chromebooks? It's obvious one reason they get bashed is simply the idea that Google created these laptop form factor machines that are not much different than the "Thin Client" computers of the past. Being Internet centric, they're highly useful for their very specific, limited, usage model.
However to compare them to anything Apple, like MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models is pure lunacy. Those who buy into such crazy irrelevant comparisons, either enjoy arguing, or do it because they can.
Me?
My exemplary 2012 MacBook Pro is the tool I make my living with. In my field of work I must have a resource laden, fast and reliable computer. Doing scientific, fluid dynamics computational work ups is not what a Chromebook is for, nor do I expect it to be.
Each has their purpose and choices are what I celebrate.
Think about what other opinion there might be... hmm....
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Think of it yet?
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A significant number of our faculty had no interest in tablets of any kind.
In other words, this is based on 40-50%of the sales, but only those to large organisations. And they probably only took a small sample of that.
There are:
- Lies
- Big Lies
- Statistics
- Medical Statistics
- Benchmarks
core2duo 2.4 ghz, 4 gb ram, 9600m gt, 5400 rpm hdd.
boots windows 8 in around 15 seconds.
What model laptop? That boot time seems pretty fast for a traditional hard drive with those specs. I don't doubt that Windows 8 is booting faster than Vista, though.
Oh yeah. Windows 8 and now 8.1 has made a believer out of me. Microsoft has really trimmed the fat and the load times with the app.
Windows RT is all but dead given that Windows 8.1 is running smoothly on 8" tablets.
Totally disagree. The cost of one's computer hardware is not indicative of one's personal wealth or disposable income. I may own all the fancy things in my signature below, but I'm also a college student who comes from a very humble working-class home. The only thing that's financing my education is Financial Aid which can go away the moment my grades drop too low, and I'm too busy with college to get a job of my own so I rely on my parents (who both rely on social security to get by) to provide me with a place to sleep and food to eat.
And I know plenty of students at my college who work between classes and barely make enough to cover basics like food and rent. Yeah, a lot of us have a nice laptop, but that's because we use our laptops to do EVERYTHING from watching movies and listening to music to completing our school work and keeping in contact with our friends and families.
TL;DR: in the same way you can't judge a book by its cover, you can't judge a student by his or her laptop. And a lot of college students have far less wealth than you might expect.
its a samsung r560.
and yes, that boot time is damn fast. windows 8 is awesome, its like windows 7, just WAY faster.
i dont even want to think about the boot times with a ssd. a friend told me he doesnt even see the windows loading screen. just his bios screen, a second of black screen, and then the windows login screen on his ssd-system.
There are always exceptions to the rule. What I am describing is the AVERAGE college student. I have not looked it up, but I bet that the AVERAGE college student is wealthier than the AVERAGE 18-22 year old in America. One of the best things about America is its opportunities for everyone through financial aid and the like.
I lived primarily off financial aid as well (for my first 2.5 years in college). I also owned a brand new 15 inch MacBook Pro (cost ~$2100-2200 at the time). In some ways I fit into the same category as you, but I would not consider myself an exception to my rule. My college tuition was completely paid for by financial aid and I got a hefty reimbursement check twice a year that paid for most everything else. All I did to get that was go to class 12-18 hours a week and study. No job required (except for summers). I know I am way oversimplifying here, but I am just trying to stress that kind of lifestyle is far from poor and not indicative of the rest of America. Sure, I knew tons of college students that had it way worse than me, but I knew a whole lot more that were either in the same boat as me or better off than me.
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oh, I just re-read my post that you quoted. I miss-spoke a bit when I said that. Everything I have been saying should be taken to mean the average college student. The notion of the average college student being poor I think is ridiculous. It just irks me that there is even such a stereotype. Sure there are college students that come from poorer families and college students that have to take on a job to make ends meet, they are not part of the average college student in my opinion.
You can't compare chromebook to a MacBook, or to any laptop for that matter. I don't think there is a product to compete with chromebook in its own territory - online only computer. Maybe you can put it in the "tablet with keyboard" category, but that's a bit of a stretch.
I would say a netbook really, or as you say a tablet with a keyboard, but even the tablet would be a bit less than a chromebook.
The computer does work offline. You can open Google Docs and such, and other apps made for the chrome browser just fine, then when you connect again they all sync up.
Given that most folks spend 80% of their time on a web browser, making a device that's a standalone web browser for dirt cheap was the next step.
I'd like to see less desktop features personally, get rid of much of the weight and make it as flat as possible with a battery big enough for 24 hours of use.
oh, i did not know that.
ok then, just put it in the netbook category. people need to start comparing oranges to oranges, not "iPad Vs.. Android" nonsense.
The author of that article finally explains what the US Commercial Channel is:
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=3CF25874-B69F-E19B-024BC4137078E1F0
Basically... Chromebooks represented 21% of sales to commercial resellers... not to consumers.
If he explained that 2 weeks ago... we might have avoided this 600+ comment thread
