Why 2025 Could Be the Year of the Chromebook
by
Juniya
Post Updated: March 28, 2024
Key Takeaways
- Education Dominance: Chromebooks’ continued growth is significantly driven by their widespread adoption in the education sector, highlighting their affordability, ease of use, and robust security features.
- Future Growth Factors: Key factors such as advancements in AI integration and the shift towards cloud-based computing are poised to further cement Chromebooks’ position in the market by 2025.
- Challenges and Opportunities: Despite facing challenges like limited offline app functionality, the increasing global internet access and the integration of Android apps are opening new opportunities for Chromebooks.
Google truly was ahead of its time when it launched the Chromebook in 2011, introducing the world to a laptop powered by its very own ChromeOS, in partnership with Samsung and Acer. I remember I bought my first Chromebook from Samsung that very year, I have always been a Google fan so it was a must by product, and if you remember, around that time, the hype for tablets was really high, almost everyone wanted one, I had about 3 different android tablets AND an iPad. After a few years of use, I passed my Chromebook on to my mom, who absolutely loved it.
Fast forward to 2024, and Chromebooks are now commanding an estimated market share of between 10-15% and continuing to grow. With that said, let’s find out what the future holds in 2025 and beyond for your favorite alternative laptop.
Factors Driving Potential Chromebook Growth by 2025
First and foremost, nothing is more important right now to Chromebooks than their continued dominance in the education sector. Their low cost, ease of use, and robust security features make them an attractive option for cash-strapped school districts looking to provide each student with a PC. This was especially true when Covid-19 forced a lot of students to homeschooled meaning, they had to get some sort of device to do remote work and boom, hello Chromebooks.
Chromebooks have become a normal thing in classrooms these days, allowing teachers to seamlessly integrate technology into their curriculum through G Suite apps like Docs, Sheets, and Classroom. The ability to easily manage and update large numbers of Chromebooks centrally has been a game-changer for most schools. With their long battery life and portable design, Chromebooks give students a distraction-free(well, take this with a pinch of salt, kids will ALWAYS find a way around such things, a discussion for another day) environment for researching, writing, and collaborating on projects. Perhaps most importantly, Chromebooks have helped level the playing field by ensuring all students regardless of socioeconomic status have access the latest technology in order to succeed in a world where AI is basically going to be in our day to day live whether we like it or not.
Why do schools choose Chromebooks instead of regular Windows, iPads or MacOS?
Like I mentioned in the previous paragraph above, a long battery life, portal design and of course, low cost makes it easy for schools to choose Chromebooks instead of regular Windows laptops, iPads, or MacOS devices, I mean wouldn’t you? Imagine if you were the IT chief or head of the school whether that be the principal or head of the board for school, after looking at the cost which is usually the reason why people make the final decision(look at how the likes Temu, which offers generally cheaper products, are putting a dent in Amazon’s profits). Here are some other reasons why schools are sticking with the Chromebooks for the foreseeable future.
- Long battery life reducing replacement needs
- Central administration through Google’s web console
- Ability to control settings and permissions
- Easy updates and security patching
- Future Chromebooks will be powered by Ai(Gemini) fully integrated.
- Integration with Google Apps/Classroom
- Cloud based storage; you don’t have to worry about HD and space running out.
- Easy use of Google Workspace apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides
- Classroom app for distributing/grading assignments
- Easy student/teacher collaboration and file sharing
- Automatic updates with latest security patches; because ChromeOS is based on Linux/Android, you don’t have to worry that much about viruses/malware compared to, you know…
- Encrypted user data with fast, secure sign-in.
Data: Market Projections and Industry Analyst Predictions
Let’s now look at the data to back up what we have been saying. Are Chromebooks really going to make noise in 2025? Yes, like we mentioned, the major driving force for Chromebook’s continued growth is the education sector. Out of every 10 laptop computers sent to schools in the United States last year, 6 of them were Chromebooks, this is according to a study by Futuresource Consulting.
What does this graph mean? It means Chromebooks are here to stay and in 2025, when new Chromebooks will be shipped out because to those that were shipped around 2020/2025 will be replaced with newer Chromebooks, we will talk about that in a moment right below, hint; LG is winning. Of course you should also remember in 2023, Google did announce that all Chromebooks will get a 10 years of automatic updates and 5 years of support. Graph source; Maximize Market Research.
- Market Size in US$ Billion (Bar Chart): In 2022, the total money made from selling Chromebooks was $30.13 billion. By 2029, this is expected to almost double to $51.64 billion. The letters “CAGR” with the number 8% tell us that every year, the amount of money made is predicted to grow by 8%.
- Key Players (List): This part lists the big companies making Chromebooks, like Lenovo from Hong Kong, Dell from the US, and many others from different countries.
- Regional Analysis in 2022 (%) (Pie Chart): This colorful circle shows us where in the world Chromebooks were sold in 2022. North America bought the most, followed by Europe, Asia Pacific, and other regions.
- Product Segment Overview (Bar Chart): At the bottom, there’s a timeline from 2022 to 2029 showing three types of products: Laptops, Convertibles, and Tablets. Laptops are the most common type of Chromebook sold, with convertibles (which can switch between being a laptop and a tablet) and tablets following.
Which industries use Chromebooks?
Graph source; Cognitive Market Research — The pie charts are showing who is using Chromebooks, split into three categories: for corporate (business), education (schools), and others (everyone else) and as you can see, even though education is by far where Chromebooks reign supreme, by 2031 the other industries are also expected to grow.
Which Brands that make Chromebooks are benefiting?
According to Business Research Insights, below is the list of the top brands that are dominating the Chromebook industry, it should be noted that all these countries listed below have one thing in common, great internet penetration. Coincidence?
- LG (from South Korea)
- Lenovo (from China)
- Google (from the United States)
- Acer (from Taiwan)
- Samsung (from South Korea)
- Haier (from China)
- ASUS (from Taiwan)
- Hisense (from China)
- Toshiba (from Japan)
- HP (from the United States)
- Dell (from the United States)
Which regions will see increased Chromebook sales?
Graph source; Cognitive Market Research — From the left to the right, each bar represents a year. North America has the highest sales, with dark blue always on the bottom because it has the most. The other colors stack on top, showing how their sales add to the total. By 2025 all the way through 2031, all regions, especially North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, are expected to buy more Chromebooks.
Challenges Chromebooks Need to Overcome
Well it’s the same old story, the inability for Chromebooks to run some, keyword SOME apps offline and it’s limited software might slow down it’s growth but not by much, in my opinion, here is why.
While it is true, ChromeOS is mostly an online operating system that runs most of its core workings in the Cloud, the entire world is going to digital and each year, more and more people are getting online thus automatically increasing the potential for those who might not have wanted a Chromebook, to now get one. Let’s not forget the launch of Starlink internet by Elon Musk which is bringing affordable high speed internet via Satellite across the globe might be a game changer faster than we can imagine.
The introduction of Android apps able to run on Chromebooks is nothing less than amazing news and now Microsoft Office can basically be ran online with the same features including access to their Copilot Pro, all online. This is why I think the future of Chromebooks is on a positive outlook, more and more software companies are running to the cloud, and guess who is at the gate already? We, the ChromeOS users.
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Other resources & websites to continue reading about the future of Chromebooks
- Read our guide on the best Chromebook for Students.
- Read our guide on the cheapest Chromebooks you can buy.
- K-12 Learning With the Help of Chromebooks.
Please feel free to add comments or ask any questions and we will try our best to help you out.
