Chromebooks are reportedly killing low-end PC laptops, Good

[froggyboy604]

A new report suggests Windows PCs don’t just face a challenge from tablets and smartphones, but are increasingly under fire from within their own brand segment. Chromebooks, the web-based Google alternative to a Microsoft or Apple-powered laptop, have been slowly gaining ground since they debuted in 2011.

Chromebooks are just a fraction of the PC market, at 2.8% in 2015, but that’s up from 1.9% in 2014. That’s an increase of 47% in just a year — not bad for growth when the PC market as a whole continues to take a beating. In response, companies like HP and Dell are reportedly cutting their losses and mostly leaving the sub-$300 space. Acer, Asus, and Lenovo continue to offer some products from $180 to $300, but we may see these products gradually phase out if they don’t sell well enough to justify their own existence.

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I think schools are one of the main reasons that Chromebooks are becoming so popular. A Schools get discounts when buying thousands of Chromebooks for their high school or Elementary school. Some schools may also get Chromebooks for free from Google because their school is in a poor town where schools are too poor to buy new computers.

I also think people who buy $180-300 computers are light computer users who mainly browse the web, use instant messaging programs, and video chat where a slightly older computer like a older desktop or netbook is good enough, so they hold onto their PCs for a long time.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I'm sure both schools and works are making use of the chromebooks. Which is good because no need to over pay.

 

[Empire]

Better get ready to say goodbye and welcome the new

 

[lb]

This is ridiculous. Chromebooks are pretty useless for doing actual photo or video editing. Chromium OS can't hold a candle to the complexity of Windows.

 

[froggyboy604]

This is ridiculous. Chromebooks are pretty useless for doing actual photo or video editing. Chromium OS can't hold a candle to the complexity of Windows.

There are some photo and video editing programs like Polarr Photo Editor 3 and Photo Editor , and video editors like WeVideo and Magisto - Magical Video Editor for Chrome OS. These photo and video editors are good enough for the average user who just want to post a cropped or re-size picture to their website, or make a video smaller in file size, or shorter, so it upload faster to YouTube, and other sites.

The article mainly talks about Chromebooks taking users away from cheap Windows laptops and desktop PCs in the $180-300 price category. Cheaper Windows computers an PCs generally are not very good for complex picture and video editing because of low amounts of RAM like 2GB, and slower CPUs like Intel Atom, and Celeron.

I read some of the comments of the article I posted, and some of the commenters say cheap Windows computers are sometimes very slow for basic tasks like web browsing with Google Chrome, and other web browsers.

I think most regular users who mainly use their PC to browse the web, watch video, and use Word Processors are picking Chromebooks because they perform faster at web browsing than cheap Windows laptops which cost $200 or less. Chrome OS is based on Linux, so it can run fast on slower hardware compared to Windows which need more RAM, and a faster CPU to run programs like Google Chrome browser at a fast speed when many tabs are open.

 

[lb]

I'd rather sacrifice a bit of extra-speed and have everything else that Windows has to offer than use a Chromebook.

 

[froggyboy604]

I think a lot of people who own Chromebooks would rather use both Chrome OS, and install a Linux based operating system like Ubuntu which is not too hard to do if you follow a guide for installing Ubuntu alongside Chrome OS. Ubuntu performs pretty well even on slower computers, and there are versions of Ubuntu like Lubuntu, and Xubuntu which runs very fast on slower computers.

I read on Linux websites that a lot of newer Windows PC now locked down the firmware with secure boot UEFI/Firmware making it very difficult to install alternative Operating systems like Ubuntu. But, most Chromebooks allow users to more easily install an operating system along side Chrome OS to dual-boot both Chrome OS, and Ubuntu if the user wants to use Chrome OS, and Ubuntu on the same time.

I bet, Chromebooks are also getting some users from Linux Users who are finding it too time consuming or hard to unlock UEFI/Secure-boot on a Windows computer, or some motherboard made for Windows.

Many Chromebooks are also fully, or almost fully compatible with Ubuntu, so things like Wi-Fi, video, audio, and the keyboard works with Ubuntu. But, there are some Windows computer which are not compatible with Ubuntu, so the Ubuntu install disc fails to load when trying to install Ubuntu, or Ubuntu does not work after the Ubuntu install.