NPD Group has come out with some new computing unit sales numbers in the US for the period of January 2013 through November 2013, and compared them to sales of units from the same period a year ago. There were some interesting, if not predictable, trends in the numbers. iPads still dominate the tablet wars, Windows notebooks and desktops are still crushing Mac OS equivalents, PC sales are down overall, and Android tablets are growing at a respectable pace.
But one trend in particular caught our eye — Chromebooks are doing damned well for themselves. NPD Group shows that Chromebooks accounted for 9.6% of sales in these categories, outpacing the 1.8% of the share owned by Macbooks and 8.7% by Android tablets. We’d put more weight on the 2.2% of Windows tablets, but that was probably already obvious.
Those Chromebook numbers were much higher than last year’s measly 0.2%, which isn’t surprising considering there’s a much larger stable of affordable and interesting devices to choose from. Options from HP, Samsung, ASUS and more give consumers a decent connected computing experience for a pretty nice value.
Most folks still need the type of horsepower that only traditional PCs can provide, but this proves that there is a market out there for a platform driven entirely by the web. It’s the “check email, bank statements, YouTube and the latest gossip” crowd that helps Chromebook flourish.
2014 should be even more interesting, with devices like the LG Chromebase showing that Chrome OS can fit on more traditional form factors. You can find the full chart above, and more details about computing device sales from NPD’s research can be had at the source link.
[via NPD Group]
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