Even though Chromebooks and Windows Laptops have seen a massive boost during the pandemic, as did all portable devices as well as PCs, widespread component shortages are forcing laptop OEMs to choose their preferred platform.
- Experts are predicting some dark days ahead for Google, as Chromebooks are about to go into freefall. The huge decrease in sales will be apparently caused by a massive building components shortage.In these hard times, OEMs will favor Windows OS machines, as they are on the more profitable side of the market.With the upcoming Microsoft OS, devices that run the Windows operating system will be even more on demand.
Note that in the second quarter of 2021, 12.3 million Chromebooks were shipped, the company registering a massive 68.6% YoY sales increase.
All this is about to change, sadly for Google, as components shortage the likes of which we’ve seen in the manufacturing of consoles such as Xbox Series X/S and Playstation 5.
OEMs can only power up a limited amount of laptops
Other big competitors in this market, such as Lenovo, said that due to component shortages which include memory and notebook panel driver IC have limited sales, they’ve shipped 30-40% fewer devices.
As you can see, these supply chain restrictions are taking quite a toll on big enterprises, which translates into billions of dollars.
So, as a result, PC manufacturers are now starting to prioritize production lines in favor of the more profitable Windows PCs, at the expense of Chromebooks.
This is a massive hit for HP, for, as you may know, Chromebooks make up 20% of HP’s portfolio.
Experts at IDC have noticed this decline and predicted the shift in the market, as senior research analyst Anuroopa Nataraj mentioned.
And, of course, the competition is gotten even more intense with the coming launch of Windows 11, which is likely to create a replacement cycle for older Windows laptops unable to run the OS.
For Chromebook, while still in high demand and even on backlog for many education deals, vendors have started prioritising higher margin Windows laptops given the ongoing component shortages.
Furthermore, Google is expected to bet big on the commercial segment this year. Analysts expect to see a strong focus on attracting small businesses with updated services.
They are talking about the new individual subscription tier for Google Workspace and promotions on CloudReady licenses to repurpose old PCs for deployment alongside existing Chromebook fleets
However, with Apple constantly looking to expand its M1 success into the commercial space and Microsoft launching Windows 11 later this year, the PC OS race is set to be the most hotly contested it has been in a long time.
What’s your opinion on this whole situation? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
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