Computer sales 2020: Chromebooks overtake Macs for the first time
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In 2020, the corona crisis created greater demand for computers for home office and distance learning. Chromebooks and Chrome OS in particular have benefited from this.
Distance learning, home office – the restrictions of the corona pandemic have caused a run on – inexpensive – computers in recent months. In the final quarter alone, Chromebook sales have almost quadrupled to around eleven million, according to figures from Canalys’ market researchers. In total, over 30 million Chrome OS devices were sold in 2020, more than half of which came from the manufacturers HP and Lenovo.
New numbers now show that Chromebooks overtook Macs for the first time last year.
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According to the market research institute IDC, the market share of Chrome OS increased by 4.4 percentage points to 10.8 percent in 2020. Apple’s MacOS, however, had to be content with growth of 0.8 percentage points and has a market share of 7.5 percent. The growth of Chrome OS and MacOS in desktop computers, laptops and workstations nibbled on the market shares of industry leader Windows. The Microsoft operating system came to 80.5 percent. This corresponds to a decrease of 4.9 percentage points compared to 2019, like Geekwire writes.
Until the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the success of Chrome OS and the Chromebooks was primarily limited to educational institutions in the United States. In the past few months, demand also seems to have risen sharply. It remains to be seen whether Chrome OS can establish itself in the medium and long term and gain further market shares. Microsoft, for example, is responding to Chrome OS success with the development of Windows 10X. And Apple stated at the presentation of the iPad Air that it was six times faster than a Chromebook.
Statcounter sees Chrome OS at less than 2 percent
It is also interesting that the statistics platform Statcounter in the market shares of the largest operating systems for desktop computers (as of January 2021) worldwide OS X (MacOS) at 16.9 percent, Chrome OS only at 1.9 percent sees. In the US, Chrome OS is currently 6.25 percent, OS X 30 percent.
