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U.S. Tablet Sales Led by iPad in 2013 as Chromebooks Overtake MacBooks

SHirsch999 said:
Well, then at the same time it wouldn't count sales through Dell's website or HP's website, etc. I haven't bought a computer from a retailer since my first one back in the early 90s. Since then I have always bought PCs online directly from the manufacturer, but according to what you are saying those sales would not be counted. If that is the truth, then you are right about the numbers being pretty much irrelevant. However, they are irrelevant across the board, not just in the case of apple devices.
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Sure. But Apples retail sales are enormous. All their stores are the most Sales per square metre everywhere in the world. It's more than double Tiffanys ( which have half as many stores )

I prefer to buy from the store as you have a simple point of contact to take it back to if it goes wrong. Apple are a little lacking in that. The online and retail operate as completely different streams, which is annoying.

Personally I think these figures are massively skewed in all ways.
 
prowlmedia said:
All very interesting. Didn't know that. Don't suppose you can share the AppleScripts or perhaps just what they do? I've meant to look into Applescript more. I had ones to change my audio out from headphone to speakers etc. But Mavericks has broken them. Seems they need to be allowed in the security settings.
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They do a few things. One is responsible for mounting a few disk images that I store things such as games on. I use a sparse bundle disk image for my games due to the fact that it stores the data in chunks (which I specified to be 1MB, the smallest possible), which allows Time Machine to backup smaller amounts of data. Game files can be gigabytes in size, so this is a huge improvement.

I have another script I use to launch one of my games. I use it to eject USB drives due to the negative effect USB can have on performance. This allows me to disconnect my USB hub and begin playing. It also increases the game's scheduling priority to hopefully combat a little potential CPU lag.

There's another script that I have used in the past, but I'd rather keep its function to myself as it's a bit of a... Shall we say "gold mine" (there's a pun in there for those who know). A few more I use periodically to carry out some settings changes or optimizations.

Although those are just the scripts I use often. I'm frequently writing scripts for various tasks, perhaps I'll dig a few up if you're interested.
 
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!!!netbooks abomination!!!

Also, Google Drive and Docs are very simple and effective collaboration tools. I was impressed with collaboration part as many people could edit presentation in real-time. Take this Microsoft and Apple! Most dangerous, that Google Drive and Docs makes perfect sense for many small-to-medium businesses. Bad news for Microsoft, I understand why they so worry. As for Apple, Chromebooks are most likely eating low-cost iPad entries, but not to a level of significance, but may be overtime.

Who knew, figures.
 
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mw360 said:
Take a look through Amazon reviews.
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Google Drive + Documents are the apps they would ever need and it it will cost them a fortune of absolutely nothing. I was very skeptical of cloud office document apps in general, but I was blown away by simplicity and effectiveness of Google implementation. Folks just caught in old laptop apps stereotypes. Chromebooks are beginning of something very different and very new approach. They do have potential to erode laptop and tablet sales to a degree of significance in the near future, due to the fact majority of new jobs created are the low-paying ones.
 
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Booji said:
A Chomebook is a much cheaper device than at i7 Macbook - it costs 1/5 the price. The point being just like tablets took away from laptop sales, it appears that Chromebooks are the next blow
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Sorry, this is completely wrong. Chromebooks can not be compared to a MacBook. A closer comparison would be compared to an iPad but as an iPad has a lot more functionality that would be wrong too. A netbook maybe? And chromebooks will suffer the same blow in time
 
Oletros said:
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.
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I replaced my MacBook for the se reasons. I don't care for the chromebook at all, and if I read correctly it is useless without Internet. At least with my iPad I can download a magazine, a books, or at games still without Internet.
A few weeks ago the power went out so I just read ony iPad, without Internet is that even possible on a chromebook?
 
In Toronto, at university... the notebook share is about 80% Apple, 20% mix of other laptops.

I have never seen a Chromebook.
 
Primejimbo said:
I replaced my MacBook for the se reasons. I don't care for the chromebook at all, and if I read correctly it is useless without Internet. At least with my iPad I can download a magazine, a books, or at games still without Internet.
A few weeks ago the power went out so I just read ony iPad, without Internet is that even possible on a chromebook?
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You have to have access to the internet to download books, games, or magazines.
 
Geoadm said:
Sorry, this is completely wrong. Chromebooks can not be compared to a MacBook. A closer comparison would be compared to an iPad but as an iPad has a lot more functionality that would be wrong too. A netbook maybe? And chromebooks will suffer the same blow in time
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I disagree, You approaching it from specific usage situation, but many folks are buying laptops for the form factor and then using it for very basic activity (lets say as iPad) and never use functionality that separates different device classes. As those folks are given choice to buy better suited device (almost disposable) they would not buy Macbook or iPad and this will make an impact on other categories sales figures. Basically, computing market becomes very targeted, with less and less overlap as there is specific and cost effective choices for specific audience.
 
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I'm going to echo the other posts in that the actual prevalence of these chromebooks in the wild does not seem to mesh with the quoted sales.

21% of new notebooks? Think of all the last 20 notebooks you've seen - were any of them a chromebook?
 
Tubamajuba said:
Why so much hate for Chromebooks? They're hardly eating away at Apple's market share. I don't think people are making the decision between a $300 Chromebook and a $1500 rMBP. They're making the choice between a Chromebook and a $400 Windows laptop. And the Chromebook is beginning to win that battle quite frequently. A Chromebook replaces cheap laptops, but it complements a Mac quite nicely.
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Last time I checked Apple isn't making fun of Chrolmebooks; Microsoft has a whole Scroogled campaign around them. I highly doubt Mac sales are down because of Chromebooks. As you point out its highly unlikely that someone is looking at a $999 MBA or $1500 MBP and decides on a $249 Chromebook instead. But I can totally see where Chromebooks are taking sales away from cheap HP/Dell/Acer Windows PCs. Hence Microsoft running negative ads targeting them.

If these figures are only for resellers than the Mac figures are bogus. It's highly likely the majority of Mac sales come from either Apple retail or Apple online stores, not Best Buy or Amazon.
 
tmiw said:
Honestly, most people really don't need a full laptop any more.

And for those who do, a MacBook is still an extremely hard sell when one of the multitude of Windows 8 laptops is "good enough".
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What do you mean 'anymore'? They used to need them but now magically they don't?

'good enough' we are setting the bar high.

Apple doesn't make 'good enough'
 
AnalyzeThis said:
Google Drive + Documents are the apps they would ever need and it it will cost them a fortune of absolutely nothing. I was very skeptical of cloud office document apps in general, but I was blown away by simplicity and effectiveness of Google implementation. Folks just caught in old laptop apps stereotypes. Chromebooks are beginning of something very different and very new approach. They do have potential to erode laptop and tablet sales to a degree of significance in the near future, due to the fact majority of new jobs created are the low-paying ones.
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I would agree. I have a small business on the side (micro-brewery) and we started off just using Google services to manage the business and implement our internal infrastructure for email, collaboration and communication. The biggest surprise was Google Docs/Drive. The functionality offered by the cloud office suite was surprising. And today - we got notification that Google's spreadsheet app was totally re-written supporting unlimited cell numbers and new enhanced filters functionality and 25 new functions. It was able to swallow a download from our accounting system and I have been running pivot tables on it with amazing speed. So Google seems to have the wright formula for delivering these applications through the browser.

Having said that we run our business on Macs as I can get all of the functionality of a Chromebook through the Google Chrome browser on my MacBP and still get all of the benefit of OS X.
 
AnalyzeThis said:
I disagree, You approaching it from specific usage situation, but many folks are buying laptops for the form factor and are using it for very basic activity and never use functionality that separates different device classes. As those folks are given choice to by better suited device they would not buy Macbook or iPad and this will make an impact on other categories sales figures. Basically, computing market becomes very targeted, with less and less overlap as there is specific and cost effective choices for specific audience.
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:confused: What part do you disagree with? That you can't compare a chromebook to a MacBook? to an iPad? or to a netbook? Cause a chromebook is basically a watered down netbook in laptop clothes. It's merely googles answer to doing everything on the net through google for the means of targeted advertising data mining
 
To me the biggest question I have about Chrome Books is what does it offer me that I do not get just by accessing Google Apps through the Google Chrome Browser on any laptop - whether it is a MS or Apple laptop. It seems all the upside of Google Chrome can be had without accepting the limitations of the Chrome Book.
 
Apple and Peers..........Volkswagen also sells more cars than Rolls Royce, Bentley and Ferrari combined: just numbers.
 
As businesses move to ERP that are web based and Java client free, I can see this keeping costs down with maintaining a traditional PC and cutting costs.

For the home user, a tablet is probably a better choice.
 
Somehow I suspect, based on the description, this wouldn't include data from the Apple Retail stores. I can't imagine Apple sharing data on sales from their own stores.

If this is the case, these numbers are completely useless.
 
I think the Chromebook has sold very well because of one factor: the very low price.

At US$250 for the most popular models, the Chromebook is perfect if your needs are just web browsing and using the full services of your Google account. Since a lot of people have Google accounts, that explains why people want them.
 
cgsnipinva said:
To me the biggest question I have about Chrome Books is what does it offer me that I do not get just by accessing Google Apps through the Google Chrome Browser on any laptop - whether it is a MS or Apple laptop. It seems all the upside of Google Chrome can be had without accepting the limitations of the Chrome Book.
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Absolutely nothing but the Chromebooks being sold are to replace laptops or for new consumers not as companion pieces to existing laptops.
 
tbrand7 said:
Image

Meanwhile at Apple...
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Meanwhile at Microsoft...

image.jpg

:D :eek:
 
I contributed to both of the numbers for android and iOS. I bought in 2013 an iPad Mini, iPad rMini, and a coby android tablet just to try out android. The android tablet while not bad, definitely doesn't give me anything extra that I absolutely need other than the expandable storage. I let my daughter use the android tablet to watch movies and play some games but in the end I gave her the iPad mini in a griffin survivor case to use.

I like using chrome on my desktop and laptop but not on my iPad. Not sure if I would like using it as a computer. My understanding, and correct me if I am wrong, is that if you do not have an internet connection, a chrome book is useless. So on those long 8-9 hr flights across the pond I would have a huge paperweight. My iPad is more useful than that.
 
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