ChromeOS surpasses MacOS/OSX market share. Now second most used OS in the PC space.

[GoodBytes]

Apple lost its second-place spot to ChromeBooks devices in the most used OS in the PC space, reports Ars Technica.

 

For years on end (practically) Windows was the most used PC based OS, with MacOS/OSX being on the second spot, with Linux being third.

But with the introduction of Google's ChromeBook' in the recent years, its OS, ChromeOS, has now taken over Apple second spot, based on numbers collected by IDC.

 

 

Based on IDC findings, Windows has now 80.5% of the pie, ChromeOS 10.8%, and macOS has only 7.5% of it.

 

Ars Technica reports:

Quote

Meanwhile, Chrome OS skyrocketed from 6.4 percent in 2019 to 10.8 percent in 2020. Windows fell from 85.4 percent to 80.5 percent.

 

The trend looks to be in Google's favor here, but 2020 was far from a normal year. Last month, IDC's report on PC sales showed the first year of consistent growth of traditional PC (desktop, laptop, workstation) sales in years. Even then, IDC indicated that the increase in sales was driven in large part by the expansion of Chromebooks both within and outside of the education market.

 

As students in many communities have had to attend class virtually from home and their parents have had to do work remotely, too, PC sales jumped during the year. Chrome OS was a big part of that. But the entire market grew overall, not just Chrome OS. IDC also noted that gaming PCs were a big driver of growth, as was a particularly strong year for the Mac.

 

Source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/the-worlds-second-most-popular-desktop-operating-system-isnt-macos-anymore

 

The massive growth of ChromeBook's shows how the landscape has changed in the computer world. Yes, Windows is the OS for gaming and productivity work. However, despite mass limitations of ChromeOS, and most devices running that OS (specs wise), it is plenty for a great majority of students and even those who mostly just surf the web and write documents (who don't need Microsoft Office suit specifically).

 

Since last year, Microsoft went all in onto Windows 10X, its new OS which scraps 100% of the legacy stuff of Windows 10, to be able to run smoothly with great battery life on low-cost devices, and aim to compete against ChromeOS. It is expected to be released later this year (current rumors (at the moment of typing: suggests a soft launch early in the year, and a full one with Win32 app support (running in a sandbox env later). As a result of this focus, Windows 10 next update (21H1) that is coming up, contains... well... nothing beside bug fixes. I'll report on this news in a moment.

 

I think Microsoft though it would have time back in 2019, but it looks like the pandemic has really pushed ChromeBook growth.

I think despite Windows 10X and ChromeOS limitations that people mention here, shows that, people just don't seem to care, at least for the device target price point.

2021 will definitely be interesting

 

What do you think on all of this?

[Drama Lama]

since chrome os is technically Linux you could say that Linux has now surpassed MacOS

[GoodBytes]

6 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

since chrome os is technically Linux you could say that Linux has now surpassed MacOS

Sure, if it makes you sleep better at night. In my opinion, it has been modified so much that Linux part is nearly unrecognizable in the user desktop perspective.

ChromeOS addresses a mass number of issues that the Linux community has been very against in tackling (at least in all big distros). If they did, maybe a Linux based OS (not modified to a point of being unrecognizable, I mean), could probably be more used than Windows. But anyways, that is of course, just my opinion.

[AndreiArgeanu]

Not surprised, these kind of devices are very popular among schools and many households since usually they're really cheap and aren't nearly as slow as windows alternatives at low price points, not to mention that some if not most can also run android and linux applications.

[TempestCatto]

With stay at home orders this makes sense. More schools buying them and giving them to students to remote learn. Parents buying them for their kids to use for the same reason (not all schools issue these devices) because it's cheap and they don't need to play Flight Sim 2020 on 8k Ultra. But I do have to wonder if Mac will claw back after more M-series devices become available.

[Drama Lama]

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Sure, if it makes you sleep better at night

no it definetly doesn't. It's a linux poisened by google to appeal to the mass market ( but that's just my opinion )

[CreativeName642]

 

1 minute ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Not surprised, these kind of devices are very popular among schools and many households since usually they're really cheap and aren't nearly as slow as windows alternatives at low price points, not to mention that some if not most can also run android and linux applications.

I've never used a Windows laptop at the lowest price point, but I don't see how it could perform worse. I had a chromebook from 2015, and it struggled with YouTube videos playing at 480p24. God forbid I try play a video at 60fps.

[Spotty]

Makes sense with all the students doing homeschooling. Also probably quite a few people who just wanted basic laptops for video calling and stuff.

 

It'll be interesting to see what their market share is like in 10 years time and if all the students who are now using Chrome OS end up sticking with it as their main operating system as they get older. Could potentially see Chrome OS taking a pretty sizeable piece of the pie.

[Drama Lama]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

It'll be interesting to see what their market share is like in 10 years time and if all the students who are now using Chrome OS end up sticking with it as their main operating system as they get older

that will even accelerate the current trend

[Sauron]

7 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

ChromeOS addresses a mass number of issues that the Linux community has been very against in tackling (at least in all big distros). If they did, maybe a Linux based OS (not modified to a point of being unrecognizable, I mean), could probably be more used than Windows. But anyways, that is of course, just my opinion.

Unfortunately ChromeOS has done that by basically removing everything that isn't chrome. You can run chrome on any Linux distribution and get more or less the same experience and functionality, but for a lot of users that's just not enough. A lot of things you might see as "issues" on GNU/Linux platform are very much considered features by many Linux users and not without good reason. Sometimes this clashes with what the mainstream user wants but that type of user can always choose something else, whereas someone looking for more control over their system can't.

[AndreiArgeanu]

Just now, CreativeName642 said:

 

I've never used a Windows laptop at the lowest price point, but I don't see how it could perform worse. I had a chromebook from 2015, and it struggled with YouTube videos playing at 480p24. God forbid I try play a video at 60fps.

That was 2015, 5 years have passed, you can't just assume nothing has changed during that time. Currently most cheap chromebook run with 2-4gb of ram and dual core celeron or pentium, quad core in some models and they run ChromeOS well and are usually pretty snappy. Whereas in contrast Windows laptop that are similarly equipped are anything but quick, over 1 minute to boot-up, browsing is very slow and opening a tab in any browser takes time and office can easily pin the CPU to 100%.

[porina]

Lower cost certainly helps drive higher volume. I bet all the Chromebook manufacturers wish they can get Apple profits on them. Still, I did wonder if education in particular was a big driving force behind it. Who else is buying them?

 

I do own a Chromebook myself. It came free when I bought a Pixel 3a. Not sure what that says about either the Pixel 3a or the Chromebook. If you're in the Google App ecosystem it is handy. Battery life is far longer than any other laptop I've ever used. I can watch videos and use Google cloud office equivalent which is about the limit of its use for me. Haven't tried it myself, but I see geforce now is on chromebook, so that could be interesting...

[Commodus]

5 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

With stay at home orders this makes sense. More schools buying them and giving them to students to remote learn. Parents buying them for their kids to use for the same reason (not all schools issue these devices) because it's cheap and they don't need to play Flight Sim 2020 on 8k Ultra. But I do have to wonder if Mac will claw back after more M-series devices become available.

It's hard to say if this will last, though. It could be a blip as people return to school and work, or as Apple boosts sales with more M-series chips; or it could reflect a new reality where Chrome OS forever claims the low-end share Windows used to have. I don't think Apple is terribly worried beyond losing some iPad sales.

[Spotty]

1 minute ago, TempestCatto said:

But I do have to wonder if Mac will claw back after more M-series devices become available.

If given the choice I think most people would prefer MacOS over Chrome OS. It's just they exist in two different markets. I think if Apple released a cheap laptop they would absolutely claw back some market share. Lots of people want macs but with the cheapest MacBook air currently at $999 ($899 with their education program) it's still too expensive for a lot of people, especially younger students.  If Apple could get a $500-$600 laptop with their Apple silicon (maybe not necessarily M1 but maybe a slower, cheaper arm processor with maybe less cores) I think they would absolutely give Chromebooks a run for their money. But, I don't think that's what Apple is going for.

[Drama Lama]

3 minutes ago, porina said:

Haven't tried it myself, but I see geforce now is on chromebook, so that could be interesting...

it will basically solve one of the few things that would prevent anyone from using chromebooks. Gaming

[Vishera]

And Windows 7 surpasses both MacOS and ChromeOS with 1 billion users.

[SupaKomputa]

22 minutes ago, CreativeName642 said:

I've never used a Windows laptop at the lowest price point, but I don't see how it could perform worse.

Not that bad, i've tried using a celeron laptop, bottom of the barrel stuff.

As long it's SSD it's gonna do many stuff relatively fast. 1080p youtube no problem.

[pas008]

this sounds about right

home schooling with drunken teachers I mean parents

 

but I kinda like the one my daughter has for school and they have it set up so she cant just screw it up with downloads/etc for most part

compared to her windows minecraft laptop that I have to constantly check on lol

[Drama Lama]

Google took the Linux fruits, harvested them , added tons of sugar and is now selling them in the form of unhealthy lemonade

[Donut417]

Remember when Windows had a 96% market share. Man times have changed. 

[Taf the Ghost]

40 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Makes sense with all the students doing homeschooling. Also probably quite a few people who just wanted basic laptops for video calling and stuff.

 

It'll be interesting to see what their market share is like in 10 years time and if all the students who are now using Chrome OS end up sticking with it as their main operating system as they get older. Could potentially see Chrome OS taking a pretty sizeable piece of the pie.

ChromeBooks might also have been the only products in stock for a lot of people for the last year. The consumer mid-market has been sold out for the last 9 months, in laptops.

[justpoet]

52 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

That was 2015, 5 years have passed, you can't just assume nothing has changed during that time. Currently most cheap chromebook run with 2-4gb of ram and dual core celeron or pentium, quad core in some models and they run ChromeOS well and are usually pretty snappy. Whereas in contrast Windows laptop that are similarly equipped are anything but quick, over 1 minute to boot-up, browsing is very slow and opening a tab in any browser takes time and office can easily pin the CPU to 100%.

No, no they're not.  We got chromebooks recently and they SUCK.  Over 5 or 6 people in a zoom meeting and it starts dropping out.  Can't watch Full HD YouTube without stuttering and dropping a LOT of frames.  It is an intel based Chrome book with 4 gigs of ram, fully updated.  Just opening an email takes a second, vs being instant on any half decent computer.

 

Chrome books are not "computers" any more than the pregnancy test running Doom is.  They're giant flaming paperweights of lowest cost consumerism that will need replacing quickly before causing a ton more ewaste.

[GoodBytes]

9 minutes ago, justpoet said:

No, no they're not.  We got chromebooks recently and they SUCK.  Over 5 or 6 people in a zoom meeting and it starts dropping out.  Can't watch Full HD YouTube without stuttering and dropping a LOT of frames.  It is an intel based Chrome book with 4 gigs of ram, fully updated.  Just opening an email takes a second, vs being instant on any half decent computer.

 

Chrome books are not "computers" any more than the pregnancy test running Doom is.  They're giant flaming paperweights of lowest cost consumerism that will need replacing quickly before causing a ton more ewaste.

You seem to describe the experience of Netbooks, back in the days (ok its was worse, depending on the model you got)

[Lord Bloobus]

1 hour ago, porina said:

Lower cost certainly helps drive higher volume. I bet all the Chromebook manufacturers wish they can get Apple profits on them. Still, I did wonder if education in particular was a big driving force behind it. Who else is buying them?

 

I do own a Chromebook myself. It came free when I bought a Pixel 3a. Not sure what that says about either the Pixel 3a or the Chromebook. If you're in the Google App ecosystem it is handy. Battery life is far longer than any other laptop I've ever used. I can watch videos and use Google cloud office equivalent which is about the limit of its use for me. Haven't tried it myself, but I see geforce now is on chromebook, so that could be interesting...

Every single student and and teacher has an iPad in my district and we also issue chromebooks for other uses. Windows laptops are too expensive and open compared to the other alternatives. I'd argue the iPad is unnecessary, but they're easier to use across all levels of education and more portable and tough, so at the same time they're great. I do deployment and replacements as well as regular IT stuff so I've worked with pretty much the whole gamut.

[Master Delta Chief]

ChromeOS is actually not all that bad, despite it's limitations it still has (especially on Neverware when it comes to say Android app functionality), it performs quite well. An old laptop of mine from around 2017 works better with Neverware's ChromeOS than letting it run on Windows. It has 8GB of RAM and runs under a i3 6006U CPU, so pretty low-powered hardware.