4 in 5 Chromebooks sold to US students in Q2 as demand rises
- Reference: 1691516049
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/08/08/4_in_5_chromebooks_sold_to_us_students/
- Source link:
A buying frenzy during the pandemic led to hefty double digit jump in sales of Chromebooks – 30 million devices were sold in 2021. Demand tailed off after [1]customers had their fill and turned off the procurement taps.
Numerous vendors including HP and Lenovo reduced production last year and tried to clear remaining stocks before they aged. Now, after seven quarters of straight decline, things might be starting to look up again, depending on which analyst you listen to.
[2]
Canalys estimates that 5.861 million Chromebooks found a new owner in calendar Q2, equating to growth of 1.2 percent year-on-year. HP grew 69.2 percent to 1.56 million units and Lenovo was up 14.5 percent to 1.34 million.
[3]
[4]
"Chromebooks' return to growth was heavily driven by a strong demand in the education sector in the US," said Kieren Jessop, research analyst at Canalys. "The US accounted for 81 percent of global Chromebook shipments."
Chromebook expiration date, repair issues 'bad for people and planet' [5]READ MORE
He said that ahead of the start of the forthcoming school year, buyers in education applied for the US government's third round of the Emergency Connectivity Fund. This "supported" the rollout of 5.1 million of the devices.
"However, the use of taxpayer money for Chromebooks has recently come under scrutiny, with the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund publishing a critical report about the lifespan on devices," Jessop added.
The report, [6]published in April , said the organization could "expect expiration dates for milk, but not for laptops." Clearly the wonderful world of planned obsolescence is a new thing to some people.
[7]
"We cannot afford to stay on the disposability treadmill," said Lucas Rockett Gutterman, the director of PIRG Education Fund's Designed to Last campaign. "For the sake of Americans' wallets and America's environment, all tech devices should last longer. Google can lead the way by slowing down the 'Chromebook churn'."
[8]Lacros rescues Chromebooks by extending their lifespans
[9]AMD scours parts bin for old CPUs, GPUs to put in Chromebooks
[10]Why I love my Chromebook: Reason 1, it's a Linux desktop
[11]Is that a meteor crashing to Earth? No, it's Chromebook makers coming back to reality
[12]Chromebook sales in recession: Market saturation blamed as shipments collapse more than 63% in Q4
He estimated that doubling the lifespan of the 48.1 million Chromebooks used by K-12 students could save taxpayers stateside around $1.8 billion dollars, assuming there are no additional maintenance overheads. Google should extend the Automatic Update Expiration for all models to 10 years, he added.
Jessops at Canalys pointed out that "schools holding onto older Chromebooks could face disruptions from usability and experience issues."
Over at IDC, analysts estimate sales of Chromebooks into the channel actually shrank 1.8 percent in calendar Q2 to 5.8 million units. It described the decline as "minimal" as customers expedited orders to avoid the "expected increase" in the ChromeOS "licensing cost in the second half of the year."
So maybe the Chromebook form factor has more challenges ahead than just a campaign group. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/14/chromebook_sales/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZNK7BKjwH@vj9SQDbkNjSAAAAdc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZNK7BKjwH@vj9SQDbkNjSAAAAdc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZNK7BKjwH@vj9SQDbkNjSAAAAdc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/chromebook_expiration_date_and_repair/
[6] https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/chromebook-churn-report-highlights-problems-of-short-lived-laptops-in-schools/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZNK7BKjwH@vj9SQDbkNjSAAAAdc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/03/lacros_extends_chromeos_lifespan/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/23/amd_cpu_chromebook/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/28/column/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/13/chroembook_sales_crash/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/31/chromebook_sales_in_recession_market/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Lifespan
Unless they are bent or "have a vision". Like the numpty where I was. Director of "Digital" that had no fucking clue about anything digital or IT, decided to move to G-Suite because he wanted to "make his mark". The "tender" and justification for it was a lie (was a publicly available document, should still be I believe) that councilors signed off. Because in said document that was written by "consultants" he personally knew (who got their gig again with no tender) it was stated Office 365 would be more expensive than G-Suite. It wasn't. Office 365 would of been cheaper as they were willing to migrate the mail for free & local governments get a discount but the "consultants" but the cost as if the council was a private company, Google charged about £30k for the privilege of moving to their "service". Ever since its been a shit show. It was discovered as G-Suite is so basic and that an Office license was still required. After all the money people (accountants) weren't going to give up their beloved Excel (quite rightly as Google Shits, I mean Sheets is god awful).
At one horrifying point, the idea was spouted "Lets replace all the Windows machines with Chromebooks" Fuck no, half the software wouldn't run on them, they were underpowered and that's when we discovered the sticker underneath all Chromebooks. The sticker that tells you the end of life date when Google will stop updating the OS. Just as Google are doing today, vendors were selling us kit that was almost if not already EOL.
The whole move to g-suite has been a shit show and way more expensive than if they'd moved to Office 365. Somehow the director is still in place and its never been exposed, most likely because the councilors don't want to admit their fuck up. But then it is also the council that allowed a nonce to have a manager role for years with access to data, for years, that he should NEVER have had access to. Said staff member is now doing a 3 year prison stretch.
The reality is after 4 or 5 years in education the screen casing is beaten up, keys have been picked off and the battery can barely hold a charge so the unit needs replacing anyway. I’m sure vendors could produce better quality hardware that would last longer but the sector won’t want to pay the extra so software lifespan doesn’t really come into it as much as some seem to think.
Or we could teach the users to take good care of the tools they use?
Never mind, sorry,... it is a no go suggestion in this throw-away society...
You've never had kids.
Accidents happen. Even to adults. Kids are still learning, Mr. Bumble.
Fact. I have no idea why you got a downvote.
I once supported around 200,000 Chrome books for a school district and it's the miles, not the tech, that makes them obsolete. And I also learned that Chomebooks are tougher than I would have thought.
I am no fan of Chromebooks, but they are perfect for public schools. Easy to fix and easy to replace and easy to reset/re-image.
I hate the idea of Chromebooks.
But they may be a useful solution for kids, who shouldn't need much more than a browser and the most basic apps. Someone is probably making a few bucks selling extra robust cases for them so they can bounce on a playground and survive. Can kids even write today, with a biro or a pencil?
BIO is something we should have been kicking arses over for some time, including demanding backwards compatibility on software.
Lifespan
One would think that an organisation with the buying power of a state education provider would have the welly (and hopefully the gumption) to write into the purchase contract a lifespan and support timespan clause.
Or is that just tooooo difficult?