Google Chromebooks Outsell iPads in Schools For The First Time

This is a pretty big announcement in my opinion as Google further defines Apple as premium brand limiting their market to the more discretionary income consumer. Where that will keep investors thrilled with Apple’s margins, surely their sales will be affected.  In many of the earlier iPad launched there was video footage of iPads being used in schools, something that Apple is rightly proud of. however, as mentioned before, schools are stretched to make their budgets work harder for them and there has been a lot of Google Chromebooks being introduced to the class room as well.

In fact Google can be proud of the 715,000 Chromebooks they sold to the US Education system in 2014 which outsold the Apple iPad for the first time with 700,000 sold. This comes via Industry research firm IDC for the time period of July-September 2014.

IDC analyst Rajani Singh credits part of the shift to the ‘active promotion’ done by Samsung, Dell and other Chrome device vendors to school districts. This push combined with the low upfront costs, easy management and ‘integrated keyboard’ are part of the reason behind their appeal.

“As the average age of the student grows the need for a keyboard becomes very important,”  Singh adds.

With a very low price point of $150 bucks or lower and a physical keyboard, the Chromebook is very appealing to educators. Apple will also be feeling the threat coming from Microsoft as well as they too are taking the Surface tablets and a very much improved future release of Windows 10 right at them as well as Google. One thing is for sure, this competitive market is good for educators and great for our children.

Thanks Simmons (source)