Demand for Chromebooks plummeted

Demand for Chromebooks has apparently fallen sharply. The chip suppliers for the usually fairly cheap notebooks with Google’s cloud operating system report that interest has fallen sharply, partly because the market is largely saturated. Such as the Taiwan branch service DigiTimes reports that the vendors based there are seeing a sharp drop in demand for Chromebooks. It is said that PC manufacturers are currently buying fewer and fewer chips as they sell fewer and fewer finished devices.

Return to in-class education

The likely cause is that schools in most countries are now reverting to face-to-face teaching, reducing the need for Internet-based distance learning equipment. The background, of course, is that protective or quarantine measures are now increasingly being dispensed within most countries, despite the high number of infections.

Another factor is the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and the associated uncertain global economic situation. The declining purchasing power of customers as a result of high inflation is also holding back demand. However, these additional factors also apply to the entire PC and notebook market. The PC makers had actually expected a slight increase in sales in the single-digit percentage for 2022 compared to the strong previous year 2021.

Now, however, nothing has come of it, so most manufacturers have revised their forecasts downwards again and are going based on a decrease in the number of units. Only in the business market is there still stable, high demand, they say. For Microsoft, the declining interest in Chromebooks means that the Redmond-based company can now breathe a sigh of relief. With the Surface Laptop Go, the market for cheap notebooks for educational purposes is now also served with its own product.