Venda do Chromebook deve quase triplicar até 2017
Em 2014, as vendas para os consumidores serão responsáveis por mais da metade das vendas do Chromebook
As vendas do Chromebooks* atingirá 5,2 milhões de unidades em 2014, um aumento de 79% a partir de 2013, segundo o Gartner, Inc., líder mundial em pesquisa e aconselhamento sobre tecnologia. Em 2017, as vendas do Chromebooks são definidas para quase triplicar para alcançar 14,4 milhões de unidades.
* A Chromebook é um dispositivo de computação móvel que executa o Google Chrome OS e principalmente usa a nuvem para armazenamento.
Gartner Says Chromebook Sales Will Reach 5.2 Million Units in 2014
Chromebook Sales Expected to Nearly Triple by 2017
In 2014, Sales to Consumers Will Account for Over Half of All Chromebook Sales
Egham, UK, 11th August, 2014 — Sales of Chromebooks* will reach 5.2 million units in 2014, a 79 per cent increase from 2013, according to Gartner, Inc. By 2017, sales of Chromebooks are set to nearly triple to reach 14.4 million units.
“Competition in the Chromebook market is intensifying as more vendors launch Chromebooks, with eight models in the market in 2014,” said Isabelle Durand, principal analyst at Gartner. “Now that the PC market is no longer growing strongly, vendors are searching for new business opportunities. They launched Chromebooks to revive interest in sub-$300 portable PCs once the netbook bubble had burst.”
Demand for Chromebooks is mainly driven by the education sector in the US. Gartner estimates that the education sector accounted for nearly 85 per cent of Chromebook sales in 2013. In addition, of the 2.9 million Chromebooks sold during 2013, 82 per cent were sold in North America, making it the major market for Chromebooks globally.
While Chromebooks are primarily used by the education sector, they will also have a place in businesses for specific workers, such as staff in banking, financial services, estate agents and hotel receptionists. “So far, businesses have looked at Chromebooks, but not bought many,” said Ms Durand. “By adopting Chromebooks and cloud computing, businesses can benefit; they can shift their focus from managing devices to managing something much more important — their data.”
These devices also encourage more collaboration and sharing of content. As more users work collaboratively in the cloud, collaborative working practices are likely to become more common which may further increase the appeal of Chromebooks and similar devices.
In 2011, Samsung and Acer, very consumer-focused vendors, were the first vendors to invest in Chromebooks, and were the two dominant leaders in the market in 2013 (see Figure 1) “While there is less presence in the business market, and a limited product portfolio for midsize businesses, Chromebooks could open doors to the business market,” said Ms Durand.
Figure 1. Chromebook Vendors’ Shares of Unit Sales to End Users, Worldwide, 2013
Source: Gartner (July 2014)
By selling 1.7 million units in 2013, Samsung led the Chromebook market globally. It was especially dominant in the education market, having the most popular devices in primary and secondary schools. Acer, which had a 21.4 per cent market share in 2013, designs Chromebooks with a consistent focus on delivering the best value for money. It uses Intel, rather than ARM-based, CPUs because its target consumers are price-sensitive.
HP was the No. 3 vendor, with a 6.8 per cent share of Chromebook shipments, and Lenovo (which did not enter the market until last year) accounted for 6.7 per cent of shipments in 2013. HP was the only vendor to launch a Chromebook with a 14-inch screen. HP positions itself as a provider of solutions and services for businesses, and its large installed customer base in the business and education markets should provide it with a strong competitive advantage in the Chromebook market going forward. Lenovo’s Chromebooks are very rugged, compared with the competition, and therefore ideal for primary and secondary school pupils. However, Lenovo needs to manage its devices portfolio in such a way as to avoid selling so many Chromebooks that it undermines sales of its other ThinkPads — which provide better margins.
Chromebooks will remain a niche market during the next five years. To reach a wider audience, vendors need to offer better features that address cloud-based usage patterns: faster connectivity, faster memory access, faster and larger solid-state drives, and strong user support in the education, business and consumer segments. “Making a competitive Chromebook is not just a matter of hardware and price; what is most important is to show how the device’s cloud-based architecture provides genuine advantages to users,” said Ms Durand.
More detailed analysis is available in the report “Competitive Landscape: Chromebooks, Worldwide.” The report is available on Gartner’s web site at http://www.gartner.com/document/2811820.
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*A Chromebook is a mobile computing device that runs Google Chrome OS and mainly uses the cloud for storage. All applications are accessed or downloaded from the Google Play store, for which a wireless Internet connection through a Wi-Fi or cellular network is required. Local storage capacity is small (up to 16GB), and mostly uses solid-state drives.
