Google Chromebooks computers outsold Apple Mac computers for first time in US

[froggyboy604]

Google's low-cost Chromebooks outsold Apple's range of Macs for the first time in the US recently. While IDC doesn't typically break out Windows vs. Chromebook sales, IDC analyst Linn Huang confirmed the milestone to The Verge. "Chrome OS overtook Mac OS in the US in terms of shipments for the first time in 1Q16," says Huang. "Chromebooks are still largely a US K-12 story."

IDC estimates Apple's US Mac shipments to be around 1.76 million in the latest quarter, meaning Dell, HP, and Lenovo sold nearly 2 million Chromebooks in Q1 combined. Chromebooks have been extremely popular in US schools, and it's clear from IDC's comments the demand is driving US shipments. Outside of the US, it's still unclear exactly how well Google's low-cost laptops are doing. Most data from market research firms like IDC and Gartner focuses solely on Google's wins in the US.

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I bet, Chromebooks are mostly being bought by schools, and buisnesses which mainly use work related software like Web browsers, word processors, presentation software, spreadsheets, and e-mail.

Regular buyers sometimes hold onto their older computers until they are no longer usable. There are still a lot of people who use an old Windows XP-8.1, Apple Mac, and Linux PC which they got many years ago.

There are some people who buy $150-199 Chromebooks which would increase the sales number of all Chromebooks.

Apple Macs are expensive, but some Macs like older Mac Pro tower desktops can last very long.

Apple probably made their Macs too long lasting, so they are experiencing fewer repeat buyers who buy a replacement for their old Macs which are broken.

Linux, and Chromebooks now has more quality software than the past, so they both are good alternative operating systems compared to Mac OS X.

 

[Archer]

Macs are expensive, and PCs are more expensive than Chromebooks. Does this mean that most people only use computers for browsing and "Office" related stuff?

It does make sense that the longevity of Macs would add to that. I recently bought a 2012 Macbook Pro and upgraded it a bit and it runs faster than my decked out HP laptop.

 

[froggyboy604]

Does this mean that most people only use computers for browsing and "Office" related stuff?

Web browsing and office related tasks are a large part of many people's computer usage times. A lot of people mostly study everyday courses like English, Math, History, Introductory Science courses, etc where a simpler PC like a Chromebook may work for them. Many Offices employees like secretaries and managers mainly use word processors, spreadsheets, e-mail, and presentation software for a large part of their day.

A lot of people may already own, share or can borrow a Windows or Mac computer from a family member or friend to use to edit video and photos on if they need to. There maybe more people replacing their office and work computer with a Chromebook because they need a computer which can load a website quickly, and open and edit a document file at a fast speed, so they are wasting less time at school and work waiting for a website or document file to load.

But, users maybe fine with slower speeds when editing a home movie, or photo on their older PC, and can deal with the extra few seconds to minutes for their video and photo file to finish editing and saving when dealing with home computer files which are not for school or work where time is more important and limited.

More regular people are also using smartphones and tablets to record, and edit video and photos to quickly upload to Instagram, YouTube, Vine, Twitter, and Facebook, so they may not need a PC for editing media if they just want to record and upload media files to social networks where most content is user generated.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

That's good, the apple laptops should not be so highly bought due to their price.

 

[froggyboy604]

That's good, the apple laptops should not be so highly bought due to their price.

There are some Windows computer makers which makes clones of Apple computers, and they cost about the same or sometimes more than Apple laptops. But, sometimes the quality can be bad for Windows computer which cloned Apple design because a lot of clones may care less about making high quality computers, and just want to make fast money by using lower quality parts like screens, RAM, motherboards, and cooling fans.

Clones of Apple PC with Windows sometimes install a lot of bloatware and Adware software because they accepted money, or get money from ads from a bloatware software maker to install their bloatware onto their computers.

I think one of the benefits of Chromebooks is that Google maybe more careful about licensing Chrome OS to companies, and don't want Chrome OS installed on laptops which are very low quality laptop which break easily because of using low quality RAM, cooling fans, Storage drives and motherboards . A few bad quality Chromebook laptop models with Chrome OS can hurt the reputation of Google, Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS. Google may also lose a lot of big school and business subscriptions for the paid version of Google Docs, Gmail, and Apps if Chromebooks are very unreliable.

 

[lb]

I wonder if this is an American trend. Chromebooks are really not a thing at all in most of Europe. I mean, they tried bringing them to local stores in my country last year. The sales were very low in comparison to Windows laptops.

 

[froggyboy604]

I wonder if this is an American trend. Chromebooks are really not a thing at all in most of Europe. I mean, they tried bringing them to local stores in my country last year. The sales were very low in comparison to Windows laptops.

Yes, I believe it is mostly an American trend, and it maybe popular in Canada since there are a lot of Canadian stores which sell Chromebooks, and advertise them a lot.

Chromebooks had been released in the US for the longest. In the past, it was harder to buy a Chromebook outside of the US because they were mostly released in the US. But, now more countries like Canada have Chromebooks for sale at local electronics stores.

I think using local stores is not really a good way to figure out how many people are buying Chromebooks and other computers like Macbooks. More people are using websites like Amazon, Newegg, eBay, and NCIX to buy computers, and electronics rather than physical stores because the prices are usually better on websites like Amazon, and there are more brands to choose from instead of just a few like a local store.