The sale of Chromebooks in the US has taken a big hit. The lowest we have seen it sink in 9 years, this can be attributed to low demand for the PC, conflict in Europe, and finally a high rate of inflation. We had earlier reported that PC manufacturers had managed to sell 79.2 million PCs in Q1 2022, considerably low from last year’s 84.15 million.
Chromebook sales across the world “according to preliminary data for calendar Q2, Gartner estimates worldwide sales-in – products taken in by retailers and distributors – at 72.011 million, down 12.6 percent year-on-year”.
According to research director, Mikako Kitigawa, “the decline we saw in the first quarter of 2022 has accelerated in the second quarter, driven by the ongoing geopolitical instability caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflationary pressure on spending, and a steep downturn in demand for Chromebooks.”
On the other hand, based on the data gathered Apple was ranked among the top five vendors that saw an increase in sales, “up 9.3 percent globally to 6.365 million”. This could be attributed to the high demand for the M1 device.
Here’s how other units performed as per Gartner’s report:
As for the others, global market leader Lenovo was down 12.5 percent to 17.863 million units, HP was down 27.5 percent to 13.5 million, and Dell was down 5.2 percent to 13.298 million. Behind Apple was Acer with shipments of 5.09 million, down 18.7 percent.
In terms of region, 4 million fewer PCs were shipped out to US channels during Q2. This means that only “20.5 million units were shipped in the US, down a whopping 17.5 percent year-on-year. Again, Apple was the only top-five player to report expansion”, Gartner said. This is despite the US market experiencing growth in shipment for both desktop PCs and laptops, which is then “offset by a 50 percent year-on-year decline in Chromebook shipments”, states Mikako Kitigawa.
Chromebook sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region were ranked as the “worst-performing” this quarter as shipments were noted to be down by 18 percent which translates to 17.8 million devices.
“This is a major setback in total volume after two years of very strong growth stimulated by COVID-19 and refreshed interest in PCs among consumers and the education segment,” said Kitagawa. “Abandonment or complete relinquishment of operations in Russia due to war in Ukraine had an even bigger impact on the PC market, as Russian PC shipments for leading PC vendors used to contribute between 5-10 percent the total EMEA PC volume”.
As for sales made in the EMEA, shipments also declined significantly with a 20 percent drop in laptop shipments and a 50 percent crash in Chromebooks. This could be attributed to the rate of inflation, specifically when it comes to fuel and energy. Asia Pacific’s shipment was also down by 5.4 percent which can be closely linked to China’s 16% drop. And finally, Japan’s shipment also shrank by 10.8 percent.
