Tech May 26, 2015 06:07 AM EDT

Gartner Predicts Chromebook Sales To Top 7.3 Million Units This Year; Google OS Computers To Grow 27% In 2015

By Staff Writer

Chromebook might not be as popular as other type of laptops now but the Google cloud-based technology already carves its name to the consumer market as its sales is predicted to reach up to 7.3 million units this year.

It has been only four years since the first model of Chromebook was launched and yet it has already achieved its success in the market as Gartner Incorporated claims that the Google-based computers will have a 27% increase from its 2014 sales.

Last August, analyst Gartner underestimated the Google OS computers to remain a niche market for its first five years of business but its 5.7 million purchase record last year says otherwise. Most of the sales in 2014, specifically the 72 per cent, were accounted from the education sector and it looks like this year, the sector will still remain as the primary buyer of Chromebooks.

In 2014, Google unnoticeably made an expansion to education applications in its Google Play and brought its e-book store from Android devices to its computers which highlighted the education features of the Chromebooks.  

Gartner claims that Google believes that Chromebooks are quite successful in the United States' consumer market as more than a third of its regional sales are from the said area. However, when it comes to non-US consumers, the brand's identity and image continues to struggle.

Chromebooks' reliability on its cloud-based apps is one of the major factors which Gartner highlights that might prevent the product's penetration of the emerging markets. Chromebook's biggest non-US demand today comes from from Australia, New Zealand and Japan which consist 3 per cent of its total sales last year.

While Chromebooks are known in the education sector, its adoption on the business front however, remains low and because of this, Google has changed its strategy. According to Gartner, the company has focused on its work suite of office applications and made its applications and services available offline in order to enhance its product's accessibility and functionality.

It's effect might not be seen right now but Google's focus in Chromebooks is believed to pay off in time as it is a great choice for enterprise which targets low cost and easy to manage options.


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