In a technology world still held back by component shortages, choices must be made. And in the world of laptops, Windows-based devices are preferred over Chrome OS devices.
IDC on Monday released early data from its latest Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Tracker pointed to a sharp 63.6% drop in Chromebook shipments, which IDC defines as “shipping to distribution channels or end users in the fourth quarter of 2021 (4.8 million shipments) compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 (13.1 million shipments) “.
In addition to market saturation, supply issues have also taken a toll on Chromebook shipments as the industry continues to struggle with shortages of PC components, from processors to integrated circuits for Wi-Fi modules and power management.
“Chromebook supply has also been unusually limited as component shortages have forced vendors to favor Windows machines due to their higher price point, further reducing Chromebook shipments globally,”said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager at IDC Mobility and Consumer Device. trackers. in a statement accompanying Monday’s announcement.
Ubrani told Ars Technica that IDC doesn’t know for sure whether Windows 10 or Windows 11 machines have priority over Chrome OS devices. Windows 11 debuted in 2021, giving PC makers a reason to update lines with “Windows 11-ready”systems.
But, since PC availability is still low, it’s likely that Windows 11 had less of an impact on PC sales.
“Typically, the launch of a new OS drives demand, although this time around, demand is already quite high and supply is low, so buyers don’t make buying decisions based on OS version,” Ubrani told Ars Technica. “As a result, we don’t think that Windows 11 specifically impacted [Chrome OS device shipments] or the PC market in general.”
Ubrani also pointed to market saturation in the US and Europe (which were particularly hungry for Chromebooks as remote learning and work grew) as a slowdown in global growth. According to Ubrani, “Demand for Chromebooks in emerging markets has continued to grow over the past year.”
But Chromebooks were actually more popular in 2021 than they were in 2020, with 4.4 million more units sold. Lenovo posted the biggest increase, from 6.7 million Chromebook sales in 2020 to 8.3 million in 2021.
HP sold 10.2 million more Chromebooks last year than any other vendor.