Companies and consumers are looking for the best tools to help with work and learning at home.
Image: HP
Demand for Chromebooks continues to grow as families look for cheap computers for work and school.
Just over 11 million were shipped in the fourth quarter of last year, for a total of 30.7 million shipped over the year (see the chart below). And it’s not just Chromebooks that are selling at a fast pace: in the fourth quarter of 2020, PC shipments reached 143.7 million, an increase of 35% over the same period last year, according to the Canalys analyzes. PC shipments increased by 17%, to a total of 458.2 million units in the year, as companies and consumers struggled to find the tools to work and learn at home.
Canalys includes tablets in its analysis of PC shipments, but also broke tablet shipments, which reached 52.8 million units in the fourth quarter, with Apple iPads accounting for 19.2 million of total tablet shipments, an increase 41% compared to the previous year.
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Amazon sold 6.5 million tablets, while Lenovo sold 5.6 million of its tablets. Lenovo was the fastest growing, while Huawei had a 24% decline from the previous year. The highly scrutinized Chinese seller was the only company to see a year-on-year drop in shipments. Overall, the tablet segment had an annual growth of 54%.
It has been a tough few years for Huawei, as the U.S. has continued to pressure allied nations to block its 5G network equipment and also block Huawei from accessing US software, leaving its phones and tablets without major Google Android apps, like Gmail and YouTube.
Chromebook shipments were much smaller than tablet shipments and were led by HP, which sold 3.5 million Chromebooks in the quarter, up 235% year over year. However, Lenovo saw a growth of 1,766% in Chromebook shipments compared to last year, to reach 2.8 million units.
Lenovo’s 10-inch Chromebook Duet tablet was rated by ZDNet’s sister site, CNET, as the best Chromebook for less than $ 300.
Dell, Acer and Samsung also saw two- and three-digit improvements in shipments compared to a year ago, according to Canalys figures. Chromebooks shipments in the fourth quarter were 287% more than last year.
Worldwide PC shipments, including tablets, were dominated by Lenovo, with 28.8 million units sold in the fourth quarter. Apple came in second with 26.4 million units, followed by 19.3 million units from HP, 15.9 million units from Dell and 11.5 million units from Samsung.
Overall, the PC industry saw shipments rise 35% in the year, to 144 million units.
“Demand for Chromebooks is increasing,” said Canalys research director Rushabh Doshi.
“With many countries being forced to accelerate their digital education plans after additional blocks, schools and universities are clamoring for easy-to-deploy solutions and Google’s digital offerings for education are proving to be quite popular over rival platforms, especially in the U.S. and Western Europe, “said Doshi.
“With governments in many countries rushing towards a much-needed 1: 1 student device ratio, the demand for Chromebooks for education is expected to remain strong until 2021. Outside education, there has also been growing interest from consumers and commercial customers traditionally look for Chromebooks to ensure affordable business continuity or personal computing. ”
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Chromebooks may be popular now, but a new challenge is underway in the form of Microsoft’s response to Chrome OS – Windows 10X.
Windows 10X is a lighter version of Windows that will launch on PCs in 2021. Microsoft expects it to be adopted by frontline employees and education people. Initially, Windows 10X will be for Intel-based computers, but support for Arm is also expected in the future.
