rach Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Some Windows experts, such as Paul Thurrott, call Chromebooks a joke. Some industry groups, such as NetMarketShare, claim that they still see essentially no use of Chrome OS. Both need to wake up and smell the Chrome OS coffee. Chromebooks have been selling like hotcakes on a cold morning for a year now.Market analysts agree: Chromebooks have taken off in the low-end laptop market while Windows 8.x PCs continue to decline.Chrome OS, a version of Linux that uses the Chrome Web browser for its main interface, and its main hardware platform, Chromebooks, are actually the one segment of the dying PC market that have actually been growing, according to Stephen Baker, VP of Industry Analysis for Consumer Technology for retail analysis group, NPD Group. "The low-end [computer] market is growing. It's overall positive, everything else is negative," added Baker."We expect Chromebooks to continue to have a substantial presence in the entry-level price bands during the holidays," added Baker. "They have consistently accounted for 20-25 percent of the entry-level market for consumer notebooks in 2013 and given the typical consumer (and channel) price sensitivity during the holiday they are very well-positioned to expand that share over the holiday period The significant marketing and advertising support Google is providing its partners is likely to be a key a feature in helping continue to raise awareness of the product and show consumers that it is a reasonably priced alternative to a tablet."That last point is an important one. Baker sees Chromebooks not just competing with low-end Windows 8.x laptops, but with tablets as well. In particular, NPD sees fighting with Android tablets for marketshare over the holidays.Before that, Baker said that Chromebooks had sold at an exceptional rate during the back-to-school buying season. This is perhaps one reason why Windows 8's anemic adoption growth rate declined to half of its already usual poor adoption rate in October.Amazon best seller list was the first to show that Chromebooks were hot with buyers in January when the best-selling laptop was Samsung's ARM-power Chromebook. Ten months later, Amazon's sales list shows Chromebooks are stronger than ever. Four of Amazon's top five selling laptops on November 8th were Chromebooks.Leading the pack was the Samsung ARM-powered $243 Chromebook again. This was followed by the $279 HP Chromebook 11; the one Windows system, the $459 ASUS Transformer Book T100TA-C1-GR Convertible Touchscreen Laptop; the $249 Acer C720 Chromebook; and its predecessor, the $249 Acer C710 Chromebook. Besides the vendors mentioned above, Lenovo is also selling Chromebooks now.Rajani Singh, Senior Research Analyst for IDC's quarterly PC Tracker, also has seen Chromebooks gain traction. "In Q3 '13 Chromebooks continued to show some momentum. Right now, adoption in education segment is quite visible, as this segment is very price sensitive and low price points of Chromebook helped in greater adoption. Even retail buyers are also adopting Chromebook. But we need to wait and watch to see if Chromebook volume is resulting from vendor's push or market driven demand. Apart from education and consumer segment, we expect some adoption in small office (mainly) and small biz (some volume) in near future (Q4 '13 and Q1 '14)."That said, Singh warned, "Chromebooks from any vendor except Samsung have not fared particularly well. Even with Samsung's products, they're primarily only having an impact on K-12 education in the US--as a replacement for aging netbooks. In Q3 '13, Samsung shipped roughly 652,000 Chromebooks Worldwide , of which majority of the shipments (roughly 89 percent) were in the US, recorded at slightly over 577,000 units. Among other vendors Lenovo, Acer and HP have shipped, but in tiny volume. Samsung continues to hold the number one position by shipping majority of Chromebooks inside geographical boundary of the US."One reason for this, Singh claimed is that, despite Amazon's numbers, "Chromebooks overall are still a tough sell for consumers because there are so few applications available. This is also one of the reasons why, even after such low price points, Chromebook adoption is still slow in non- education segments."Having said that, Singh concluded, "Chromebook will continue showing momentum, at least in near term, their share will grow but overall they will hold minority share in total notebook space. In longer term, we need to wait and see, if Chromebook demand actually increases or they have same fate as of "netbooks" (strong growth followed by sudden demise). This also depends on vendors, if they are able to come up with upgraded versions of Chromebook that have more features, maintaining the low price points, and some key vendors are working on this."At the same time, Bob O'Donnell IDC's VP of clients and displays, warns that, "Essentially, the value equation for Chromebooks is the cheapest clamshell form factor notebooks you can buy, but we expect to see some even more aggressive Windows 8-based notebooks that will directly compete with Chromebooks on price and probably represent a better value for most consumers than Chromebooks."Disgruntled Windows 8.x users might disagree. The market, which saw Windows 7 usage go up in September, seems to have little interest in learning Windows 8. As American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) director David VanAmburg has said, "Microsoft's revamped Windows 8 operating system does not seem to have provided a bounce in sales or in customer satisfaction for these manufacturers."Say whatever you will about Chromebooks, anyone who's ever used a Web browser can sit down at one and start being productive. The same can't be said of Windows 8.x with its Metro interface. Indeed, Google is working on making it possible to use its Chrome Web browser as a de facto desktop shell for Windows 8.x.Another problem with low-priced Windows scenario is that Windows overcame the Linux netbooks not because of a new operating system, but by bringing back an old operating system, Windows XP, for next to no cost to vendors. With Microsoft pushing hard to move its own pricey Windows 8.1-powered Surface Pro 2 units a return to this approach seems unlikely.Research house Gartner also sees good things ahead for Chromebooks. In a report earlier this year, Isabelle Durant, a Principal Analyst in Consumer Technology and Markets, said, that while "The Chromebook standard failed to capture traction at launch, but we are starting to see more interest from consumer, business and education markets. Chromebook vendors like Acer, HP, Lenovo and Samsung should target buyers looking for low-cost, Web-based devices or an alternative to Windows 8." And, indeed, that's just what they've done. Last, but not least, forward-looking hardware executives are also seeing further possibilities for Chome OS as a desktop replacement. Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, during the company's third-quarter 2013 earnings call, that while "We have no exposure to Chrome today … it's proven to be quite an important operating system. We have known all along that technologically it is incredibly robust, resilient, and high quality, and now we are seeing quite strong adoptions all over the world. And so this is an area that warrants focus on our part and we will put some energy around it to go see if we can make a contribution in this space as well."Today, the Chromebook has become a power in low-cost PCs. Tomorrow, we'll have to see, but unless Microsoft is successful in regaining its desktop mojo, it appears that Chromebook and Android tablets will own the low-priced computer user world. :view: View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calguyhunk Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 This is a major league LOL article. Low priced 200-300 dollar PC's will sell the most in developing countries where internet is notoriously slow and bandwidth is prohibitively expensive. To imply, that in such a scenario, a PC needing extensive cloud access will be more successful than a traditional Windows/Linux PC is a joke. Just shows how little Americans know, understand and care 'bout the rest of the world. Even the supposedly smart tech-savvy journos. :angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nIGHT Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 From what i understand from this article it says:Poor micros0ft's wind0ws 8.x RT got his ass kicked even by just a new OS. :wedgie:Micros0ft, upon seeing being beaten by other competitors, has to bring out their biggest gun which is xp to replace their dysfunctional os RT concept. :sui: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janedoe Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 (edited) Before that, Baker said that Chromebooks had sold at an exceptional rate during the back-to-school buying season.I'd like to ask - has anyone seen a Chromebook in the wild and actually used one? The closest (and only time) I came to it was when my friend bought one for her son for school work thinking it was a good deal. What a huge mistake that was! It took him less than a day to figure out how constrained he was with access to just a browser and primarily Google's web apps, especially compared to all his friends who could do loads even with low-end laptops. Ultimately my friend bought him a MacBook that he's using happily now with both OS X and Windows 7 via BootCamp. Sure it's costlier no doubt, but it's also a no-compromise PC that will enable him to get more done and last him much longer than a low-end Chromebook will. I'm betting the article's author doesn't have kids whom he bought Chromebooks for recently, or else he'd know just what they think of them.Since most of the sales so far have been to the education segment, that tells me that it is educational institutions who are perhaps buying these cheap low-end laptops in bulk (with vendor discounts) and forcing their hapless students to use them. Either that, or tech-clueless parents like my friend who got swayed by the discounted prices and considered it a great deal given the state of the economy.That last point is an important one. Baker sees Chromebooks not just competing with low-end Windows 8.x laptops, but with tablets as well. In particular, NPD sees fighting with Android tablets for marketshare over the holidays.I'd like to know which retail consumer who wants the convenience of an Android/iOS tablet is buying a Chromebook instead? Not me for sure and no-one I know of either. (Perhaps Google employees? ;)) Also, has anyone wondered why Google would encourage one Linux-based OS to cannibalize on the market share of another (Android), given it develops both? Perhaps it makes more profit from the former?Only penny-pinchers who want to save every last buck and don't need much more than a browser and basic webapps must be interested in Chromebooks, as is evident from these bits:One reason for this, Singh claimed is that, despite Amazon's numbers, "Chromebooks overall are still a tough sell for consumers because there are so few applications available. This is also one of the reasons why, even after such low price points, Chromebook adoption is still slow in non- education segments."At the same time, Bob O'Donnell IDC's VP of clients and displays, warns that, "Essentially, the value equation for Chromebooks is the cheapest clamshell form factor notebooks you can buy, but we expect to see some even more aggressive Windows 8-based notebooks that will directly compete with Chromebooks on price and probably represent a better value for most consumers than Chromebooks."Finally there's this insanely ridiculous zinger:Say whatever you will about Chromebooks, anyone who's ever used a Web browser can sit down at one and start being productive. The same can't be said of Windows 8.x with its Metro interface.I get it, the author clearly hates Metro with a passion. That's fine, it's his choice. However to actually compare a Chromebook with a full-fledged Windows 8 PC (he didn't mention RT here) is a joke, and the author is either an idiot or a paid shill for Google or both. If he can't find a Metro app to do what he wants, is he incapable of switching to the desktop and using an app there? As far as Windows RT goes, yes it has its limitations which I do get frustrated with (especially when comparing the Surface RT to the Pro), but I'd like to know what's so magical about the web browser in a Chromebook that can make someone more productive compared to the web browser in RT? And if the lack of good Metro apps is an issue, what about the exact same problem plaguing Google's struggling platform (see analyst's comment above)? One thing's for sure, this article's author should be ashamed of calling himself a tech journalist.Ultimately the Chrome OS platform and hardware exists solely to push people into becoming completely dependent on Google's cloud services (which are very deeply integrated into the OS obviously so you cannot avoid them), so as to better track and monetize their usage habits. If money's really tight and cost is the primary purchase criterion then I would advise people who've bought a Chromebook already to wipe Google's perverted and restricted version of Linux and install ChrUbuntu or any other modern Linux distro instead. Otherwise you can also buy a decent laptop without an OS (these do exist, often advertised as DOS systems) and install Linux on it. Furthermore in certain countries based on local laws you also have the option of declining the Windows EULA on first run and not paying for the Windows license when buying a new laptop. Get yourself some good hardware and use a full-featured version of Linux instead of a distorted one. If money's not an object then buy a Mac or Windows laptop/ultrabook (on which you can dual-boot Linux obviously). Whatever path you choose you're sure to get more actual work done then you can ever imagine with a Chromebook. Edited November 11, 2013 by janedoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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