Dive Brief:
- According to a new report from Futuresource Consulting, Chromebooks now make up more than half of all devices in U.S. classrooms, up from less than 1% in 2012, NBC News reported.
- Meanwhile, Apple's market share been reduced by more than half over the last three years, from 52 to 24%. Microsoft's market share has fallen from 43 to 24%.
- The edtech market is becoming an increasingly important growth area for tech companies as PC and tablet sales in other industries have slowed. School districts are expected to purchase more than 11 million devices next year in the U.S. alone.
Dive Insight:
As of the third quarter of 2015, Google had 53% of the market for K-12 devices bought by schools and school districts.
"While it was clear that Chromebooks had made progress in education, this news is, frankly, shocking," said Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder. "Chromebooks made incredibly quick inroads in just a couple of years, leaping over Microsoft and Apple with seeming ease."
Every school day, 30,000 new Chromebooks are activated in schools, says Futuresource.
"It's been amazing to us to see that growth happen just in that short amount of time," said Rajen Sheth, director of product management for Android and Chrome in business and education. "If you look at the overall market for devices in education, it's actually expanded a lot and Chromebooks have actually taken a lot of the expansion."
Google's major advantage is Chromebook's extremely competitive price.
"Chromebooks have the perfect value proposition for education: They're easy to manage, secure, can easily switch between users, and are cost-effective. Plus, a great deal of educational content and software has been optimized for web-based delivery," said Gownder.
