back to article Consumers start feeling the love as Chromebook sales surge

Chromebooks are set to become the next big thing in personal computing devices after sales skyrocketed by two thirds over the last quarter. Shipments of Chromebooks jumped 67 per cent during the second quarter of 2014, and are projected to double in size year-on-year according to ABI Research. Acer moved the most Google- …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Can we have figures that mean something?

    A 67% increase on 100 or a billion?

    Sick of this useless marketing bullshit speak.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can we have figures that mean something?

      It was on 3. So now they have sold 5.

    2. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Can we have figures that mean something?

      Here in Germany, I have yet to see a single Chromebook for sale at MediaMarkt, Saturn or Telepoint. On Amazon the cheapest I've seen was the ARM based Samsung, but that was about 100€ more than entry level Windows laptops...

      There is not a single Chromebook on Amazon's top 50 bestseller list - although there are 3 Android based devices in the list.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can we have figures that mean something?

      "sales skyrocketed by two thirds over the last quarter"

      Not for long I think. With Microsoft's removal of the licensing fees for small screen devices and the latest Intel chipsets, you can get a proper laptop running Windows for that kind of money, not a cutdown and limited inferior product like Chrome.

      1. Martin
        Thumb Down

        Re: Can we have figures that mean something?

        "...not a cutdown and limited inferior product like Chrome."

        Says someone who has clearly never used a Chromebook.

        I think we can safely assume that Windows running on a similarly-spec'd box as a Chromebook will not boot within ten seconds from scratch. It might just crawl up to speed within a minute.

        It will also require regular updates (which will take minutes at a time) to keep it secure, as opposed to regular automated Chromebook updates which taken literally seconds to run. Oh - and you'll have to run an anti-virus check on it all the time, which will make it run even more slowly.

        It will barely be able to run Microsoft Office, and will not be able to run most games. Which is basically the same as a Chromebook.

        So what was that about cutdown and limited?

    4. dave 93

      Lazy bastard

      If you were actually interested in the numbers, not just sounding off, it is easy to find them...

      http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2819917

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who eloquently put it I fail to recall,

    but assume 67% of f*all

  3. Jim 59

    No stats

    Follow the link to the ABI article and there are still no absolute figures. Keep clicking through to the "powerpoint presentation" and you hit a paywall instead. El Reg has just echoed the ABI teaser.

    1. Oneman2Many

      Re: No stats

      Indeed, no real data unless you want to pay for it,

      however this report shows total Q2 2014 shipments to be around 1.8m units globally.

      http://press.trendforce.com/press/20140721-1494.html

      1. ratfox

        Re: No stats

        Nice to have some numbers! The worldwide PC shipments for that quarter was around 75m, 5m of which were Macs. Assuming the growth numbers stay the same, there will be more Chromebooks than Macs sold around 2016. It's not negligible, but it's not that much either.

        If we compared to smartphones in terms of current market share, I guess Chromebooks would be Windows phones, Windows would be Android, and Apple would be Apple. The winds seem to be blowing differently, though.

  4. Stuart 22

    Samsung

    Are they not exiting this market in Europe? Hmmm an HP/Acer duopoly is not good.

    I also wonder whether the Chromebook boom is in no small part many of us realising that we can do almost all our mobile work on tablets or smartphones. Great for reading stuff, just crap at creating or controlling it. So a tablet like environment with a real keyboard is great and we live in times when boot up times of more than 5 seconds are no longer acceptable. That's Chromebook-land.

    Many of us can now live without a laptop, pocket the savings and carry less weight.

    I have a Kubuntu crouton on mine - just in case I need it to be a 'real' PC. But that doesn't get used that much. We are much cloudier than we think we are and Chromebooks encourage it. Unless you are locked in the past.

    1. jason 7
      Happy

      Re: Samsung

      Yeah I've said before that I was sniffy about them at first then nearly two years ago I bought one and have been smitten ever since. The robustness of a tablet with a decent keyboard attached.

      I took mine of a three week holiday to Canada a few weeks ago. The gf enquired why I was taking it but was rather glad when something at work went tits up and she had to spend a couple of hours pinging emails back and forth which wouldn't have been that fun on her Nexus 7.

      Plus I didn't take the charger with me and it lasted all holiday with an hour to spare.

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Samsung

      That's what I was thinking. Other than to post what people above had beaten me to, that percentages without some idea of actual numbers are meaningless. I've seen them in PC World, but I've never seen a customer even look at one. In my local one, they're in the unloved corner, with Surface where nobody goes.

      My Mum has just got rid of her desktop. Since we got her an iPad, I don't think she sees much reason to be arsed to get off the sofa and walk to the office. I fixed something on her PC for her the other day, and it hadn't been booted for over a month, yet she gets more emails in a day than I do. In her case she's gone for a hand-me-down Macbook Air - but had one of the family not had that, a Chromebook might have suited her equally well. Something with a keyboard, that can be used on sofa or table, for typing longer emails. And in her case, the odd report.

      Myself, I find the ergonomics of a desktop unbeatable. But I'm in a small minority.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Samsung

        Yep. The desktop form factor is unbeatable for working on (more than just reading/typing emails). If you do all your work on a laptop, then you're not working efficiently, nor are you doing your body any favours.

        The Chromebook easily handles the use cases of when a laptop's form factor is suitable. They are how "netbooks" are supposed to be.

      2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

        Re: PC World

        I have seen some interest in PC World while wandering around. Quite a lot if you compare the area of Windows machines to the sole Chromebook stand, but not as much as the fondlslabs and Apple kit was getting.

        I suspect most ended up buying a fondleslab though, probably the cheaper iPads or Android. But then I am not a sales guru like Gartner, etc, so why listen to me?

    3. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Samsung

      Boot times of 5 seconds? The iPad I have at work for testing takes the best part of a minute to boot. My Galaxy smartphone around 40, although my Windows 8 tablet manages it in around 20.

      1. Tim99 Silver badge
        Gimp

        Re: Samsung

        @Big_D

        My iPad Air takes just under 20 seconds to boot from off, or less than a second from Sleep...

        1. big_D Silver badge

          Re: Samsung

          I only have a iPad 2 to play with at work, that takes an age to boot.

          And yes, wake from sleep is instant, just like my Windows tablet and laptop. But the OP was talking about boot times, not wake from sleep times.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Didn't get a good review on the Gadget Show this week....

    http://gadgetshow.channel5.com/review/series-20-episode-6-macbook-vs-chromebook

    1. jason 7
      Facepalm

      Hmm bit like testing a Ford Fiesta against a BMW M3 really.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Ford Fiesta against a BMW M3

        For someone who's not in to cars, there's not an awful lot of difference.

        The same would go for computers.

  6. Roger Greenwood

    Horses for courses

    Posted from a chromebook, on a train.

    Yes it could have been a laptop or a phone etc, but the battery/keyboard combination is a winner for many with a few hours to kill.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Love mine

    does everything I need to do at home, with none of the Microsoft BS.

    More than pleased with my Acer C720.

    1. zebm

      Re: Love mine

      Reading this on my Acer C720, use it more often than my Windows laptop and have given up on the tablet. Thinking of upgrading to a 13", perhaps the Asus, though may wait for the new Toshiba.

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. 404

    Meh

    While I can see* the use of having your Chrome settings and apps working across tablets/phones/laptops, doing so over a satellite connection would be a little costly - only for the well-connected**.

    *Closet neanderthal - I like my data where I can lay hands on it & Google probably wouldn't let me in to their heaven-like cloud cathedral to tend to my data if need be.

    ** Recently found in another Reg story (old Jag rebuild) American gas sucks mightily 92 vs Norway's (and everywhere else in the world, seems like) 99 octane premium gas.... self-esteem: ruined.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meh

      US and Europe use different ratings, so you can't directly compare the number on the pump.

      Add 4-5 to the US number to get roughly the RON equivalent.

  10. RPM
    Linux

    Great for running Linux

    I bought a 14" HP chromebook in June. Within 48 hours I'd dumped Chrome OS for openSuSE Linux 13.1 - this machine uses an Intel processor, so runs any ordinary distro. There were a few issues getting the touchpad to work but once solved it runs like a dream - and with amazing battery life. Shame there's so little room on the 16G SSD, but not only do I have firefox with all the privacy improvements (noscript etc) but I can and do run software installed on my desktop using X forwarding.

  11. wanderson

    more fodder for MS madness

    There is little chance than many readers here on TheRegister and other Microsoft supportive media such as ZDNet will accept any truth to this story, even though other reputable and respected Technology Market Research entities publish very similar results stories.

    This subtle fact, combined with continuing news of Microsoft poor sales showings with Smartphones and Tablets - by comparison with Apple and Android systems which outpace MS in area of twenty times sales and growth - drives Microsofties into panicked mania, usually resulting in gibberish and non-factual responses and comments in the forums.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: more fodder for MS madness

      "continuing news of Microsoft poor sales showings with Smartphones and Tablets"

      You must have missed Microsoft's recent results - record revenues with Smartphone sales up year on year - and Surface sales are about to hit $1 billion a year up 127%.

      Windows Phones and Surface are starting to really take off in the enterprise too - there have been several recent announcements of large WP and Surface wins of migrations away from Apple and Blackberry.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: more fodder for MS madness

        That was $908 million of Surface in a quarter, not a year.

        I was surprised sales were as high, given how crazy expensive they are (Over £1600 for the 512Gb model I'd need for a development laptop/2 in 1).

  12. Fehu
    Trollface

    Already bought two. Will probably buy another soon.

    Do I use our Samsung Chromebooks for real work, development, reports, etc? No. But checking email and checking the real story behind news you see talking heads trying to explain without having to get up and go to the home office is very useful. The Chromebook is not a fire breathing desktop gaming machine, but only a fool would buy one thinking that it is. But it's extremely good at doing what it was intended to do. Many windows laptops can not make that claim.

  13. The Godfather
    Pint

    Oh, I dunno..

    Bought one for the wife just this week...perfect...she is in love with it. Light, easy to carry, no messy anti-virus to worry about and more joyously, no Microsoft updates to annoy her every day. Very fast login too..much faster than the HP laptop she had before.

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