Demand for Google Chromebooks Continues To Plunge

The market for Chromebooks continues to dry up as demand for the affordable laptops declines in the education sector. 

On Friday, the research firm IDC reported that shipments for Chromebooks dropped(Opens in a new window) a staggering 51% year-over-year in the second quarter. This led vendors to only ship 6 million units, down from 12 million from a year ago. Among Chromebook vendors, HP, Samsung and Lenovo experienced the biggest declines in shipments at over 50%.

The numbers underscore how Chromebook demand is on a downward trend. Back in Q1, the shipments fell 61.9% year-over-year, while in 2021’s Q4, the volume also declined by 63.6%. 

“The decline was expected as the inventory buildup is still being cleared out and demand in the education sector has slowed,” IDC said. But in some good news, the Chromebook shipment volumes in Q2 were still “above pre-pandemic levels.”

The news represents a reversal from 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused millions of Americans to work and study from home. This caused demand for Chromebooks to soar on the public looking for affordable computers. But since then, the market for Chromebooks has cooled off after governments and schools used up their budgets on upgrading their hardware. 

The shipment decline also occurs as overall PC demand in Q2 suffered a worse-than-expected decline. On Thursday, Intel blamed the weakening demand on high inflation and fears of an economic recession, which is causing consumers to pull back from spending.  

Nevertheless, IDC remains bullish on the long-term prospects for Chromebooks, and points to the continued need in the education sector for affordable computers. “The need for remote learning accelerated schools' plans to reach a 1:1 ratio for PCs to students and this ratio will likely continue to hold in the future and even if PC shipments decline in other categories, Chrome will continue at these elevated levels,” said IDC research manager Jitesh Ubrani.