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.
U.S. Tablet Sales Led by iPad in 2013 as Chromebooks Overtake MacBooks
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I wonder if some of the more powerful Windows tablets are being categorized as notebooks and not tablets?
With the arrival of Atom based Windows 8 tablets (T100, Acer Iconia, etc.) Windows 8 may now be a viable tablet platform...
It's sad that only 1/3 of people attend university and even less obtain a post-secondary degree ... yet we complain that China and India are taking our jobs.
The remaining 2/3 only a handful go on to a trade school and obtain a certification, while the rest, they're basically dead weight in society.
I think the real Apple competitor for the Chromebook isn't the Macbook, it's the iPad Mini. If Apple is really looking into keyboard covers like the ones Microsoft uses it could offer a viable option. If Apple can do that and lower the cost of the non-retina Mini I think it could really compete in that segment. I mean, what is the Chromebook except a stripped down OS with cloud-driven office software used primarily for web-surfing. The iPad has all of that plus a huge app store and touchscreen.
And at $250, Google can't be making a killing on the Chromebook.
And at $250, Google can't be making a killing on the Chromebook.
I'm actually now interested in finding out what all the fuss is about chrome book. I think we all now live in a age when you don't need a $500 computer let alone a $1000 Apple computer for the majority of things people do with them.
And whats scary is that Google could release a hybrid version of Android that can function as a standalone smartphone or a Chrome book when attached to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Google could easily take over the OS lead from Microsoft overnight with a smartphone. I bet people here would love to see a iphone run OSX when connected to a 27" monitor. But we all know that Apple would die first before doing this.
And whats scary is that Google could release a hybrid version of Android that can function as a standalone smartphone or a Chrome book when attached to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Google could easily take over the OS lead from Microsoft overnight with a smartphone. I bet people here would love to see a iphone run OSX when connected to a 27" monitor. But we all know that Apple would die first before doing this.
Fully depends on your needs and use. My daughter who is 7 needed something to use for her school reading, homework and math (yes our schools have kids using computers, my son even has his own school supplier Google drive for homework), the school has a website where she can read books, then answer comprehension questions as well as practice math, etc. The teacher tracks her progress and adjusts her homework accordingly. Very neat.
We also wanted something she could use to watch videos, Hulu Kids, Amazon Kids, play games, etc.
A tablet would have and did work fine, but my wife was tired of not having access to her iPad and of course kids drop things and get things dirty, so do we give her a $400 iPad, $300+ Kindle Fire HD? To a 7 year old? So for $160 via Amazon Warehouse Deals we got her a Samsung Chromebook, with a 11.6" screen, larger than both an iPad or Kindle and has a full sized keyboard and complement of ports.
For her needs, web browsing, school work, Google Docs, Hulu, Pandora, local music and shows loaded on an SD card, etc it is perfect and anything more is OVERKILL!!!!
It is all solid state, so nothing breaks when she drops it (and she has). Battery lasts 8 or more hours, it has an SD card slot, USB 3 and HDMI out and enough local and online storage for her needs for years to come.
Is it plastic? Yep. Does it have a basic screen? Yep. Can you run full blown productivity apps? Nope....but it was $160, doesn't get viruses, has all the power most people who do basic web surfing, emailing and video watching require, and if it dies....well it is over a year old, so we got our $160 worth.
I have thought about getting one just to have laying around the house for a quick web check, YouTube video to throw over to our Chromecast, over having to go find my phone or go up to my Mac in my office, and the larger screen is nicer to read than my small phone screen.
If most people really evaluate their PC needs, be it tablet or laptop, many people spend majority of their time on the web or in email. For those people, a Chromebook is a very inexpensive and viable alternative. Why pay for features you will never ever use?
Of course there is a need and a market for more powerful tablets and computers with better processors, better OS and better screens; however I say there is a growing market for options like the Chromebook.
----------
Screen size is the issue. 11.6" vs 8.9" is a sizable difference. The Chromebook is selling for less than $250 as well.
Same in my son's school. In fact, he wanted a Chromebook over a Mini for Christmas. They use Google Docs for a lot of their homework and with so many things being web based, it's a good solution.
A lot of people bash them sight unseen. But after playing with it for a few days, i can see the appeal. They boot up lightning quick, run fast and do 90% of what most casual users want a computer to do.
I also see the appeal of a device that doesn't require endless driver updates, system updates, files to configure, etc. The same simplicity that's the appeal of the tablet, is the same for the Chromebook.
Where Google has a chance to really make hay is Google Docs. it's a pretty good Office substitute and getting better all of the time. It was a lot easier for the school district to ask the students to do all their homework on that than force everyone to buy MS applications.
"COMMERCIAL" = schools
All of the elementary/middle schools in Douglas county Colorado purchased Chromebooks.
~$200 and everything the students need for the curriculum and completing assignments.
They complete all of their writing assignments on google docs (drive), and my son shares the document with me so I can coach him / proof his work, and he shares the document with his teacher so it can be turned in / graded.
Pretty compelling use case at the cost.
All of the elementary/middle schools in Douglas county Colorado purchased Chromebooks.
~$200 and everything the students need for the curriculum and completing assignments.
They complete all of their writing assignments on google docs (drive), and my son shares the document with me so I can coach him / proof his work, and he shares the document with his teacher so it can be turned in / graded.
Pretty compelling use case at the cost.
Cool. Some sound very useful. I am going to look into it and automator in the new year.
Last Christmas (2012) my brother bought everybody in his family a Blackberry Playbook because they were only $100 each. I told him he should have spent the $400 on a single iPad because it would be much more useful. The Playbooks were used for about a month and then forgotten about because they are crap.
Chromebooks are much like the Playbooks were. They are inexpensive and look like a real device, but they're not even close. A fast boot time only goes so far when their buyers are used to the power & consistency of Mac OS X, or the ubiquity of Windows. In a month most everyone who thought they were buying a "real computer" will have shelved their shiny new Chromebook and will be back in the store looking for something better.
My cautionary tale, YMMV.
Chromebooks are much like the Playbooks were. They are inexpensive and look like a real device, but they're not even close. A fast boot time only goes so far when their buyers are used to the power & consistency of Mac OS X, or the ubiquity of Windows. In a month most everyone who thought they were buying a "real computer" will have shelved their shiny new Chromebook and will be back in the store looking for something better.
My cautionary tale, YMMV.
Actually - I bought a chromebook and use it regularly. Oh - it's not a "full laptop" - but in so many circumstances, it's all that's needed. I imagine that many general computer users use case is surfing the net (youtube, netflix) and email. The chromebook has great battery life, can do much of what is needed and comes at a great price point.
Your cautionary tale is nothing more than your experience. I'm glad you at least put the YMMV in there though
The truth is - not everyone wants or needs the same thing in devices. That's why it's always good there are choices like Android, iOS, Windows, Chrome and so on. Instead of some people "hating" on different platforms they should just be happy with the one they use (or use another) and stop trying to make anything they DON'T use the "enemy"
Well hopefully more than a handful and they are earning something useful. I'd submit a highly skilled pipefitter, plumber, welder, electrician, etc - is WAY more useful to society than somebody fresh out of college with a $120,000 liberal arts degree and 4 years of great memories partying on daddy's dime.
They are not competition to Mac.
They target different segments. No software. No enterprise integration. Too slow.
I would question their stats first. e.g., Does NPD get Apple numbers ? Companies and education institutions buy in bulk from Apple if your order exceeds hundreds.
Average selling price is also a problem. The vendors would want to unload Chromebooks for cheap if they can't sell them.
And that's why Apple created the iPad. What's the point of buying a laptop-designed machine to only surf the web when you can have a very portable, unobtrusive tablet that will surf the web and offer even more for a low price. Chromebook is a waste.....and to be honest I'm 99% sure most of those purchasers (outside of techies) thought they were buying a Windows machine as someone else mentioned earlier.
And made about 1% of the money that Apple did. How is that good. It really is not good to build market share at an operating loss...
By the way. Am I the only one feeling netbook DejaVu.
Small and Cheap But no Windows
Small and Cheap With Windows
Gone
MS is not scared of Chromebooks. They have cheap net books. There are too many software, too much mindshare, and entrenched enterprise integration to compete against.
This is yet another fake marketing exercise.
Huh? My mom bought a Windows laptop for around $400-$450 several years ago. There have always been computers cheaper than Macs. Microsoft needs to be worried, especially with Windows OEMs now selling Chromebooks. The question isn't whether to buy a Mac or a Chromebook but whether a Chromebook is good enough compared to a cheap HP/Dell/Acer Windows PC. You don't see Apple taking potshots at Chromebooks like Microsoft is.
Last edited by a moderator:
Before you get too excited....
This is a study based on 14M total units sold through Nov.
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/...13-with-double-digit-growth-according-to-npd/
Where they clearly state: PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 23, 2013 Year to date through November 2013, 14.4 million desktops, notebooks, and tablets were sold through U.S. commercial channels, leading to a 25.4 percent increase over 2012, according to The NPD Groups Distributor Track and Commercial Reseller Tracking Service. This stellar performance follows the 3.1 percent sales increase experienced in 2012
For reference. Apple sold over 14M iPads just in Q3 of this year. So NPD, like they usually do is putting out a highly deceptive report that is probably accounting for a majority of Chrome books sales, but only a small sliver of others. It is almost impossible that Chromebooks outsold ALL Android tablets. Especially considering that Kindle's are usually counted as Android tablets in their study.
This is a study based on 14M total units sold through Nov.
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/...13-with-double-digit-growth-according-to-npd/
Where they clearly state: PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 23, 2013 Year to date through November 2013, 14.4 million desktops, notebooks, and tablets were sold through U.S. commercial channels, leading to a 25.4 percent increase over 2012, according to The NPD Groups Distributor Track and Commercial Reseller Tracking Service. This stellar performance follows the 3.1 percent sales increase experienced in 2012
For reference. Apple sold over 14M iPads just in Q3 of this year. So NPD, like they usually do is putting out a highly deceptive report that is probably accounting for a majority of Chrome books sales, but only a small sliver of others. It is almost impossible that Chromebooks outsold ALL Android tablets. Especially considering that Kindle's are usually counted as Android tablets in their study.
their total number of devices accounted for is 14M. That's well less than 10% of the overall market.
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 23, 2013 Year to date through November 2013, 14.4 million desktops, notebooks, and tablets were sold through U.S. commercial channels, leading to a 25.4 percent increase over 2012, according to The NPD Groups Distributor Track and Commercial Reseller Tracking Service. This stellar performance follows the 3.1 percent sales increase experienced in 2012
Yeah, I think you're right.....that must be why I see MacBooks at virtually every coffee house, my college, with random people in the streets, on the sports shows, in the arts, used by GOOGLE'S OWN EMPLOYEES and just about every tech blogger and tech video on YouTube shows the host with a complete Mac setup.
And get back to reality dude about Chromebooks selling "20 times more than MacBooks", you know you've hardly seen anyone with one (if at all) so this article isn't being candid about what they consider a commercial channel.
These are enterprise sales numbers. They need enterprise integration.
Chromebooks are not doing well at all. Google can push them one time for fake numbers, but they are too slow and limited for enterprise given the same netbook form factor.
iPads are different because the form factor and UI make them better for certain tasks. OTOH, Chromebooks are just a cheaper, and even poorer netbook.
because ipads are expensive for what they do. I just sold some s/w to a company with 20 employees and they replaced laptops with chromebooks at around $300 per seat. All their s/w is web based so it's a no brainer. They have a couple of ipads but to give everyone an ipad and also a keyboard (which they would all need) would be a waste. Plus they didn't really need the app store for local apps so there's no benefit in that.
Chromebooks have their place and I can see more and more people switching in the coming year.
Chromebooks have their place and I can see more and more people switching in the coming year.
It seems like many people in this thread have probably never used a Chromebook for over a day, nor do they know many people who don't require a fully-equipped laptop. Not everyone in the world is a graphic designer, developer, etc. These must be the same people who think that they need a MacPro to play Farmville.
I heard there's this thing called demographics and anecdotal evidence that can be very useful in explaining a situation like this. Maybe you should look into them.
I heard there's this thing called demographics and anecdotal evidence that can be very useful in explaining a situation like this. Maybe you should look into them.