The market went down no more, no less than 48 percent

Feb 6, 2023 06:28 GMT  ·  By

After the boom recorded in 2020 when the global health crisis caught us all unprepared, the Chromebook market is going down, with the latest statistics painting a rather sad picture for this particular side of the PC world.

In 2022, Chromebook sales went down no more, no less than 48 percent, according to IDC data, with absolutely all companies that are shipping products in this industry experiencing major declines.

Acer, which was the number one Chromebook maker in 2022, sold just 4.2 million units last year, down 33.8 percent from 6.4 million units in 2021. Dell is the runner-up despite a 24.3 percent drop, while Lenovo is third after recording a massive and very painful 54.4 percent decline.

Lenovo’s Chromebook sales fell from 8.2 million units to 3.7 million units in 2022,

HP recorded the biggest drop. Its sales went down 65.6 percent, as the company sold only 3.5 million Chrome OS devices in 2022. In 2021, Chromebook sales totaled 10.2 million units, which made HP the leading company on this side of the market.

"While Chromebooks have faced a tough few quarters, the excess channel inventory that had built up is starting to subside and could potentially lead to more normalized growth in the coming quarters as back-to-school season returns," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "However, any traction that Chromebooks made outside the education sector will continue to suffer as the economy stalls and as tablets and PCs supplant Chrome-based devices."

Needless to say, it’ll be hard for Chromebooks to recover after these massive declines, but the drop should at least slow down as employees return to offices and start getting new devices. However, the whole thing wouldn’t bring the company back to growth, as the 2020 boom is unlikely to be matched anytime soon.