In 2020 as most of the world experienced COVID-19 stay-at-home orders coupled with remote working and learning, Google Chromebooks exploded in popularity.
A new report from Canalys says that 11.2 million Chromebooks shipped in the final quarter of 2020, bringing the yearly total up to 30.7 million units.
This is a significant jump compared to last year’s sales of 14.7 million.
HP took the Chromebook crown by selling 9.4 million Chrome-based laptops. Lenovo followed that with 6.8 million, and Dell sold 4.6 million. Acer, Samsung and other manufacturers all contributed to the overall market as well.
Logically this makes sense since so many people were forced to transition to remote work. For many, especially kids doing remote learning, an affordable Chromebook must have seemed like the most cost-effective solution.
Even though the Chromebook market exploded, it appears that the PC market didn’t experience as much of a bump. That said, Canalys’ stats show that the PC market still casts a shadow over Chromebooks, with roughly 458 million sales throughout 2020.
Tablets also exploded with a market share of 160 million units in 2020. This explosion was more of a resurgence after a few years of moderately stable sales. Still, it outlines the importance of personal computing devices that the COVID-19 lockdowns have illustrated so well. It also shows that while Chrome OS is growing, it still has a long way to go.
Still, it’s nice to see Chrome OS growing, and ideally, this massive growth in Chrome OS market share will ensure that Google brings more and more features to the fledgling computer operating system.
Source: Canalys
