Chrome OS taking over? Really?

Paul constantly say the Chrome OS is taking over. When they have a 1.56% marketshare only.

How is a 1.56% taking over?

Conversation 24 comments

  • Paul Thurrott

    Premium Member
    03 January, 2019 - 3:51 pm

    <p>I can't recall ever saying that, and I'm not sure where this number comes from. But Chromebooks outsell all other PC types in education, combined, in the US. And they are making headway in Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand as well. There was even a quarter this year where the only reason there was growth in the PC market at all was from Chromebooks in business.</p><p><br></p><p>So why don't we just scale back the hyperbole for starters. </p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      03 January, 2019 - 5:10 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#390462">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Why don't you proclaim this an outright failure after basically 8 years in the market and never hitting even a 2% market share? I don't understand this stance.</p>

    • maethorechannen

      Premium Member
      03 January, 2019 - 6:14 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#390462">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p><em>So why don't we just scale back the hyperbole for starters.</em></p><p><br></p><p>But then we wouldn't be able to feel superior from our personal technology choices. That's no fun.</p>

    • skane2600

      03 January, 2019 - 11:54 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#390462">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Didn't the Mac outsell all other PC types in education for years and yet it didn't lead to a real challenge to Windows?</p>

      • wright_is

        Premium Member
        04 January, 2019 - 12:24 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#390686">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>In the US, yes. In the UK, where I lived at the time, it was the CBM PET, which was followed by the BBC Micro and then MS-DOS and Windows. Not sure about Germany, where I now live.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      04 January, 2019 - 12:22 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#390462">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Living in Western Europe and with 2 girls in education, I have <em>never</em> actually seen a Chromebook, not in a shop and not in public. </p><p>The schools and universities certainly aren't using them over here. They are looking at finally rolling out kit to pupils and students in the next couple of years – although the states are still arguing against federal funding for school IT – and they are currently swaying between iPads and Windows.</p><p>At the moment, Chromebooks are just too expensive to be taken seriously. They cost more than equivalent Windows laptops here – a ChromeOS Acer with Celeron processor was around the same price as a Pentium or Core i3 based Acer Windows laptop…</p>

  • yoshi

    Premium Member
    03 January, 2019 - 4:11 pm

    <p>I also don't recall Paul ever saying that. And really, what would be the issue with Chrome OS having some success?</p>

  • F4IL

    03 January, 2019 - 4:26 pm

    <p>Your 1.56% only tells half the story. To have a more complete picture, you need to factor in a component called time. If Chromebooks managed to secure 1.56% of the global PC market in just 12 months, you could say ChromeOS is potentially taking over. But even that would take years. If it managed to capture the above in a couple of years, which is closer to what is really happening, then it would be safe to say it is making headway.</p><p>Finally, it also depends on your interpretation of <em>taking over</em>. These things take time and it certainly doesn't mean that ChromeOS will be the dominant desktop OS next month.</p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      04 January, 2019 - 1:26 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#390520">In reply to F4IL:</a></em></blockquote><p>8 years. Epic fail. </p>

  • Thom77

    03 January, 2019 - 4:43 pm

    <p>I suspect this post might have been initiated by Paul's comments in the last Windows Weekly, which i just listen to last night. Perhaps Paul hasn't directly said "Chrome is taking over", but IMO, he definitely views Chrome OS as a legitatmate lateral move option for a large segment of the Windows base. He said something in the podcast to the effect that "Well, people will just move over to Chrome OS" .. for what reason, I can't remember .. but I do remember thinking "WTF are you talking about" because I can't imagine that happening when there are no pro video editing software on Chrome, nor 3d CAD, nor Programming software, nor Steam/PC gaming options, </p><p><br></p><p>Hey, Paul has access to data I nor the OP has, so what do I know … but his view of Chrome OS, IMO, is exaggeratedly optimistic.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • PaulHewitt

      03 January, 2019 - 4:54 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#390530">In reply to Thom77:</a></em></blockquote><p>How many people genuinely need the power you refer to? I look after the PCs for my wife, mam, dad and step mother. They look to me for buying advice and of the whole group I'm the only one that actually NEEDS a PC. When there current machines reach EOL I'm recommending that they move to Chromebooks. I have one, and it fulfils about 70% of what I need (a laptop and custom gaming rig make up the extra).</p><p><br></p><p>Honestly, supporting 5-6 PC's with (buggy) twice annual updates is no longer fun. I have better things to do with my time…</p>

      • Thom77

        03 January, 2019 - 6:26 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#390552">In reply to PaulHewitt:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>"How many people genuinely need the power you refer to?"</p><p><br></p><p>I guess the 76% marketshare worldwide of people who still own Windows machines even though Chromebooks have been out SINCE MID-2011, in addition to the 12% marketshare of people who use MacOS.</p><p><br></p><p>The data doesn't support that there is any momentum towards Chrome OS, nor that people are willing to just get up one day and leave a Windows laptop in favor of a Chrome OS laptop because they have had plenty of time to do so. </p><p><br></p>

      • cayo

        03 January, 2019 - 7:23 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#390552">In reply to PaulHewitt:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Why would anyone invest in a computer that does 70% of what he/she needs? You get a Chromebook, and then you also need a real computer? Really? Even the dads, wives and stepmothers hit the roadblock with those toys sooner or later, that's why they are not selling.</p><p><br></p><p>People buy computers that can do everything. This is why Chromebook is a failure. It will probably be cancelled soon.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

      • skane2600

        03 January, 2019 - 11:47 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#390552">In reply to PaulHewitt:</a></em></blockquote><p>Consumer behavior isn't primarily driven by need. How many people "need" social networks? $1000+ phones? Artist-branded headphones?</p>

    • maethorechannen

      Premium Member
      03 January, 2019 - 6:11 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#390530">In reply to Thom77:</a></em></blockquote><p><em>there are no pro video editing software on Chrome, nor 3d CAD, nor Programming software, nor Steam/PC gaming options,</em></p><p><br></p><p>My mother does none of those things. I almost wept with joy when she got herself a Chromebook. The extent of tech support I ever now need to give her is ”keep the power button down until it shuts off, then press the power button again”. </p>

  • lordbaal1

    04 January, 2019 - 12:13 pm

    <p>Maybe he didn't say that exact wording, but something along those lines.</p><p><br></p><p>Just because there were more shipment of Chromebooks, does not meat anything. Which I doubt anyway.</p><p>But people don't buy new PC's every year.</p><p><br></p><p>Just Google chrome os market share. The second link. It won't let me post the link on here.</p><p>But that is only for the last year.</p><p><br></p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      04 January, 2019 - 3:04 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#390884">In reply to lordbaal1:</a></em></blockquote><p>There has never been more Chromebook shipments than PCs. Good grief! <img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="?" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/1f61c.svg"></p&gt;

      • lordbaal1

        04 January, 2019 - 6:11 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#391359">In reply to VancouverNinja:</a></em></blockquote><p>Accord to Paul, there was.</p>

  • Bats

    04 January, 2019 - 1:47 pm

    <p>"Chrome OS" (browser) is dominating Windows desktops. </p><p><br></p><p>It's cousin Android owns the mobile market.</p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Chrome OS" has taken over the education sector in the USA and other countries.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Chromebooks have literally saved the PC industry, because they are counted as personal computers.</span></p><p><br></p><p>It's safe to say that it's a Google world and Microsoft is just living in it.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • lordbaal1

      04 January, 2019 - 1:59 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#391184">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>That is a bunch of BS. 1.56% market share is nothing.</p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      04 January, 2019 - 3:03 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#391184">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>Whoa cowboy. Are you okay? </p><p><br></p><p>You should get some rest; Chrome OS is an abject failure of this highest order. It is a complete failure as a Desktop OS and has simply been rejected by consumers, businesses, and higher education. </p><p><br></p><p>Any desktop OS that cannot get to a stable 2% marketshare is pathetic – and once you rip out the American K-5 usage it most likely is not even holding 1%. </p><p><br></p><p>Since we are tech people – try to stick to the facts and not rhetoric; it adds nothing to the discussion. </p>

    • skane2600

      04 January, 2019 - 3:19 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#391184">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>There have always been companies with products on Windows that have been more sucessful than Microsoft's own competing products but that didn't mean they "dominated" Windows and it doesn't in Google's case either. </p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    04 January, 2019 - 6:30 pm

    <p>Does it have significant market or user share? Not worldwide, but in come countries' primary and secondary education sectors, it does. Is that enough? Up to Google and its OEMs to decide.</p><p>That said, it does provide a systematically safer computing environment for those whose computer usage is predominantly browsing and e-mail. How so? Because left in standard (so not developer) mode, there's no way for users to put anything executable on their Chrome OS device other than installing apps from the Chrome Web Store.</p><p>System updates are also simpler because they involve downloading new system images onto a round-robin of partitions meant for system images in the background, then changing the boot partition to the new image's partition. This final step before rebooting is done in the Unix/Linux standard run level 1 (single user). User files are kept on a separate partition which is mounted noexec (as are all partitions on removable media) and the whole partition encrypted by default.</p><p>There are some things in Chrome OS which Windows would be better by copying.</p>

  • Sprtfan

    04 January, 2019 - 6:46 pm

    <p>Marketshare is not shipping and care should be taken when making comparisons. At my school district at least chromebooks are on a 3 year refresh cycle and windows based PCs are on a 5 year. The chromebooks are also replaced at a higher rate mid cycle do to usage differences making them more likely to get damaged. </p>

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