 "Chromebook accounts for 1 in 4 devices shipped into US Education")
Google's Chromebook platform is making significant headway within US education, and is emerging as a contender to Apple's dominance of the market, according to new research from Futuresource Consulting.
In Q3 2013, Chromebooks accounted for a fifth of all mobile devices shipped into US K-12 education and early indications show this growth continued in the final quarter of the year, accounting for one in every four devices shipped.
Looking back to 2012, Chromebooks made up less than 1% of all devices shipped within the US education market, while Apple products - including iOS and MacOS devices - captured over 50% of sales.
More From This Section
Moving into 2013, preliminary figures show Chromebooks have grown to account for almost 20% of all devices shipped within the US over the entire year, with uptake increasing and more hardware providers now offering variations of the platform.
There are a number of factors that are making Chromebooks appeal to educational institutions in the USA. The biggest of these is the cost of the hardware, and the cost of ownership when compared to other solutions.
"Chromebooks present a number of benefits to the education market which go further than just offering cheaper hardware," says Phil Maddocks, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting.
"While savings can be made on the cost of the hardware alone, the majority of the cost savings originate from within infrastructure and device management. As Chromebooks are cloud-based devices, the security, device management, and even core content creation apps such as Google Docs are run in the cloud, which produces cost reduction on both managing and setting up the devices, as well as some software licensing costs."
Kate Russell, Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting, a research and knowledge-based consulting company, said: "Chromebooks are filling an important gap within education. Along with the inherent reduced cost and the ability to accommodate set specifications, Chromebooks allow schools to provide devices that give students a portal to an ever-growing array of content."
Looking ahead to 2014, uptake of Chromebooks is likely to increase as several traditional PC manufacturers including Samsung, HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, and Toshiba are all now producing low cost Chromebook devices, with Dell explicitly targeting the education market with their first Chromebook device.