By 2019, something weird had occurred: Chromebooks were excellent! Acer, Asus, and other manufacturers had started to invest in non-disposable hardware for their ChromeOS devices. Lenovo had a Yoga Chromebook, while Dell and HP were beginning to offer Chromebooks in a variety of pricing points and configurations. Chromebooks have progressed from “the bad but inexpensive choice” to a viable Windows alternative. Most of those solutions were also far less expensive than any of Google’s Pixelbooks.
Chromebooks exploded in the early days of the pandemic, when pupils needed to attend school from home. According to IDC statistics, ChromeOS devices outsold Apple’s Macs for the first time. According to Canalys, the number of Chromebooks sold increased by 275 percent between the first quarter of 2020 and the same time in 2021. However, as the PC industry has slowed following a strong early epidemic boost, ChromeOS has declined more than most: Gartner predicts Chromebooks will be down a whole 30% by 2022.
Meanwhile, Google hasn’t released a new laptop in over three years, but the Pixelbook Go is still available at the company’s online shop. Some have suggested in recent months that Google’s Tensor processor may be a motivation for the corporation to reinvest in the field, searching for ways to bring its AI power to ChromeOS and laptops — and finally address the Android compatibility issue.
