Latest report from NPD group reveals that Chromebooks managed to grab 21 percent share of all commercial laptop sales in 2013, which hints at more trouble for Microsoft in 2014.
The numbers are considerably significant for the fact that Chromebooks didn’t register noteworthy share in 2012 while managing a garner over a fifth of commercial laptop sales in just one year – the largest increase across various product segments.
“Chromebooks accounted for 21 percent of all notebook sales, up from negligible share in the prior year, and 8 percent of all computer and tablet sales through November, up from one tenth of a percent in 2012 – the largest share increase across the various product segments” NPD stated in its report.
NPD analyst Stephen Baker said that because of lukewarm sales of Windows powered laptops, vendors offering alternative pre-configured notebooks with operating systems managed to “capture significant share” in a segment which has been otherwise dominated by Microsoft.
Samsung, Acer, and HP have all managed to increase their share in the non-windows laptop segment and Chromebooks are in for greater adoption next year with Dell also looking to cash-in on the shift by releasing a Chromebook of its own in 2014.
Google has had a bumper 2013 as NPD revealed that Chromebook and Android tablets sold over 1.76 million units from January to November this year up from just 400,000 in 2012.
