Chromebook shipments totalled 13 million units worldwide in the first quarter of 2021, compared to just 2.8 million over the same period last year. Since the onset of the pandemic, sales of these notebook computers have been surging.

These 13 million shipments set a new record for the Chromebook sector, topping last quarter’s 11.2 million high, according to the latest figures from IDC. HP is the top-selling Chromebook maker from January to March 2021 (4.4 million), followed by Lenovo (3.3 million), Acer (1.9 million), Dell (1.5 million) and Samsung (1 million).

Working from home is still being encouraged in many countries and plenty of students are still studying remotely. In fact, Chromebooks are particularly popular for education, especially in the US.

The success of the Chromebook is relatively easy to understand. At a time when many people are staying at home, particularly for work and studying, these devices offer quick and easy access to the Internet and to the main productivity tools people need, all at a lower cost than regular PCs.

A Chromebook is a notebook computer that runs Google’s Chrome OS operating system, and which favours access to tools in the Google universe, starting with the Chrome web browser, from where users can access Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and more. Now, most of the main PC-makers also include Chromebooks in their ranges. The first models came out around 10 years ago.

 - AFP Relaxnews