Last week senior product marketing managers from Google’s Chromebook team were in Australia talking to retailers about the success the Company is experiencing with their sub $350 notebook.
In the USA the device has already captured between 20 and 25% of the market with analysts tipping that sales will grow by 10% between now and Christmas.
The device which is being sold by JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman has bucked the PC trend with traditional notebooks sales falling by more than 10%.
Analysis firm NPD believes that Chromebooks is set to be a “hot” product this year because it is priced right and delivers “good “performance.
Stephen Baker, an NPD analyst told Bloomberg late last week, said “While we were sceptical initially, I think Chromebooks definitely have found a niche in the marketplace.” Chromebooks are now said by the agency to be the fastest-growing part of the PC industry, based on price. Baker also goes on to suggest that the sub-$350 market will continue to grow by more than 10-percent by the end of the year.
The brands selling the Chromebook in Australia are HP, Acer, and Samsung.
The rest of the PC industry is expected to continue its decline for some time. Figures from IDC released in May suggested that shipment will continue to decline throughout 2013, dropping by a further 1.2 percent in 2014.
Earlier analysis from market watchers even go as far as to claim desktop and notebook shipments have suffered the worst year-over-year drop in almost 20 years, with the growth of tablets and smartphones being to blame.
