Chromebooks “provided all the growth” in sales of laptops during the busy US back-to-school period, a leading group of industry analysts has reported.
For the 10-week period, stretching from June 30th to September 7, 2013, NPD Group report that while overall computer sales were down 2.5% over the same 10 week period from last year, Chromebook sales bucked the trend.
“Chromebooks provided all the growth in the challenged notebook market.”
“Chromebooks and Windows Touch helped offset what could have been much steeper declines this back-to-school season,” said Stephen Baker VP at NPD, adding that they ‘…provided all the growth in the challenged notebook market’.
Chromebooks accounted for 3.3% of total computer sales (some 175,000 units) to Apple’s 20.3% (-3% in Macbook sales) and Windows 58% (down from 62% same time frame last year).
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen proof of growing Chromebook sales. During the first quarter of this year sales were up 100% on 2012, jumping from from around 1-2% to 3-4%. The figure from NPD seems in line with that.
With a range of new Haswell-powered Chromebook’s about to hit the market in time for Christmas, chances are we’ll see even stronger sales posted in the coming months…
In related news, Google’s vice president of product management for Chromebooks has told Business Insider that over 22% of US district schools are now using Chromebooks.